State  of  Iowa 


DEPARTMENT  OF  JUSTICE 

Des  Moines.  May  25,  1912 


THE 

Report  of  the  Committee 

Appointed  to  Investigate  the  Character  of  the  Warden  and  the  General 
Management  of  the  Iowa  Penitentiary  at  Fort  Madison 

together  with 


A  Report  Concerning  the 

Jail  System  of  Iowa 

with  Recommendations 


GEORGE  COSSON,  Attorney  General  of  Iowa,  M.  A.  ROBERTS, 

PARLEY  SHELDON,  Committee 


DES  MOINES: 

EMORY  H.  ENGLISH,  STATE  PRINTER 
1912 


s 


. 


* 


♦ 


» 


DIRECT  GIFT 


CONTENTS 


I 

j  ^ 


Page 

Introductory  .  3 

Nature  and  Extent  of  Investigation .  5 

Part  I. 

The  Character  and  Integrity  of  the  Warden .  9 

Part  II. 

The  Physical  and  Sanitary  Condition  of  the  Institution . II 

Part  III. 

The  General  Management  of  the  Institution  . 13 

Treatment  of  Prisoners  .  15 

The  Guards  and  Subordinate  Officers  of  the  Institution . 21 

The  Evil  Effects  of  Contract  Labor  . 22 

Substitutes  for  Contract  Labor . 32 

State  Account  System  . 32 

State  Use  System  . 34 

Public  Works  . 35 

The  Penal  Farm  . 37 

Co-operation  of  Agricultural  College  and  Penal  Farm. 57 

Opinion  of  Dean  Curtiss  . 59 

Necessity  for  Fundamental  Change  . 63 

Value  of  Prison  Labor  . 64 

Summary  . 76 

The  Jail  System . 78 

Basis  of  Reform  . 78 

Condition  of  our  Jails  . 80 

The  Sheriff  . 81 

The  Fee  System  . 82 

The  District  Penal  Farm  . 84 

Indeterminate  Sentence  for  Misdemeanants  . 85 

Cost  of  Crime  . 86 

Necessity  for  Women’s  Colony  . 92 


INTRODUCTORY 


On  the  7th  day  of  August,  1911,  his  Excellency,  Governor  B. 
F.  Carroll,  directed  a  communication  to  the  attorney  general  in 
writing  in  which  he  called  attention  to  the  management  of  the 
Iowa  penitentiary  at  Ft.  Madison  and  said : 

“I  respectfully  request  that  you  make  a  personal  investigation 
of  the  conditions  existing  at  Fort  Madison  and  of  the  charges 
against  Warden  Sanders  and  others  and  report  to  me  at  your  con¬ 
venience.  It  is  my  desire  that  you  ask  two  reputable  citizens  of 
our  state  to  sit  with  you  in  order  that  you  may  have  the  benefit 
of  their  judgment  along  with  your  own  and  I  also  desire  that  the 
investigation  be  made  at  your  earliest  convenience.  ’  ’ 

Pursuant  to  that  request  I  appointed  Hon.  M.  A.  Roberts  of 
Ottumwa,  who  has  had  a  long  and  distinguished  service  upon  the 
district  bench  of  this  state,  has  been  a  student  for  years  of  social 
problems,  has  taken  an  active  interest  in  the  civic  welfare  of  his 
own  city  and  state,  and  was  therefore  especially  equipped  for  work 
of  this  nature;  and  Hon.  Parley  Sheldon  of  Ames,  a  man  of  large 
and  varied  business  experience,  who  has  served  his  city  for  nearly 
a  generation  as  mayor,  who  has  been  the  nominee  of  his  party  (the 
Democratic  party)  for  Lieutenant  Governor,  and  whose  integrity, 
ability  and  sense  of  fairness  is  recognized  by  every  one  in  the  state. 

The  committee  regrets  the  delay  in  making  the  report  but  no 
apology  is  offered  since  the  importance  of  the  work  and  the  thor¬ 
oughness  and  comprehensiveness  of  the  investigation  required  much 
time. 

The  committee  is  unanimous  upon  all  of  the  material  findings  and 
recommendations  and  there  is  no  substantial  disagreement  upon 
even  minor  matters  and  details. 

On  behalf  of  the  committee  I  desire  to  express  our  appreciation 
for  the  courtesy  and  kindness  shown  the  committee,  or  the  attorney 
general,  by  Prof.  Charles  R.  Henderson  of  Chicago,  United  States 
Commissioner  of  the  International  Prison  Commission,  and  formerly 
president  of  the  International  Prison  Congress; 

Dr.  James  A.  Leonard,  Superintendent  of  the  Ohio  Reformatory, 
at  Mansfield; 


Mr.  Patrick  J.  McDonnell  of  the  New  York  Reformatory  at 
Elmira ; 

Dr.  E.  Stagg  Whitin,  General  Secretary  of  the  National  Com¬ 
mittee  on  prison  labor,  Assistant  in  social  legislation  at  Columbia 
University,  New  York; 

Warden  R.  W.  McClaughry  and  his  deputy  Mr.  Mackey  at  the 
United  States  penitentiary  at  Leavenworth ; 

Mr.  W.  H.  Whittaker,  Superintendent  of  the  District  of  Columbia 
Workhouse  near  Occoquan,  Virginia; 

Prof.  Franklin  H.  Briggs,  Superintendent  of  the  New  York  Agri¬ 
cultural  and  Industrial  School  for  hoys  at  Industry ; 

Mr.  Calvin  A.  Derrick,  Superintendent  of  the  George  Junior  Re¬ 
public  at  Freeville,  New  York,  Mr.  Wm.  R.  George,  the  founder 
of  the  Republic; 

Mr.  John  L.  McDonell,  Superintendent  of  the  House  of  Correc¬ 
tion  of  Detroit,  Michigan; 

E.  J.  Fogarty,  Warden  of  Indiana  penitentiary  at  Michigan  City; 

Everett  J.  Murphy,  Warden  of  Illinois  penitentiary  at  Joliet; 

Dr.  J.  E.  Gilmore,  Superintendent  of  Central  Prisons,  Canada, 
and  penal  farm  at  Guelph ; 

Frank  R.  McDonald,  Superintendent  of  the  Workhouse  at  Minn¬ 
eapolis. 

Many  valuable  and  practical  suggestions  were  received  from  these 
men  and  those  who  are  prison  administrators  willingly  aided  in  an 
examination  of  the  inner  workings  of  their  several  institutions. 

Obligation  is  also  acknowledged  to  the  many  wardens  of  the 
various  states  in  the  Union  who  furnished  the  attorney  general  with 
detailed  information  concerning  the  workings  of  their  institutions, 
and  a  like  obligation  is  also  acknowledged  to  the  several  county 
attorneys  of  Iowa  who  furnished  detailed  information  concerning 
county  and  city  jails  in  their  respective  counties. 

The  state  of  Iowa  is  under  obligation  to  Judge  Roberts  and  Mr. 
Sheldon  for  the  personal  sacrifice  made  by  them  in.  the  giving  of 
time  and  energy  without  compensation  in  this  examination.  It 
was  a  genuine  pleasure  to  serve  with  men  of  such  ability  and  fair¬ 
ness  in  a  matter  of  this  nature  which  means  so  much  to  the  welfare 
of  the  state  and  so  much  to  the  unfortunate  men  and  women  who 
find  themselves  in  penal  and  reformatory  institutions. 

GEORGE  COSSON, 
Attorney  General  of  Iowa. 


Des  Moines,  Iowa,  May  25,  1912. 


—  5  — 


Honorable  B.  F.  Carroll,  governor  of  iowa: 

At  an  early  date  after  the  receipt  of  your  letter  directing  atten¬ 
tion  to  complaints  made  concerning  the  warden  and  the  manage¬ 
ment  of  the  penitentiary  at  Fort  Madison,  the  committee  was  ap¬ 
pointed  and  organized  for  the  purpose  of  investigating  complaints, 
which  may  be  grouped  as  follows: 

First.  The  personal  integrity  and  moral  character  of  the  war¬ 
den. 

Second.  The  physical  and  sanitary  condition  of  the  institution. 

.Third.  The  general  management  of  the  institution. 

A  brief  statement  of  the  nature  and  thoroughness  of  the  investiga¬ 
tion  may  be  advantageous  at  the  outset. 

NATURE  AND  EXTENT  OF  INVESTIGATION. 

The  committee  unanimously  agreed  that  it  would  be  advisable  to 
take  the  testimony  at  a  closed  hearing,  to  adminster  an  oath  to  the 
witnesses  and  have  the  testimony  duly  taken  down  by  a  competent 
stenographer.  This  was  considered  advisable  in  order  that  every 
one  who  desired  to  give  testimony  would  feel  free  to  giye  evidence 
before  the  committee  in  secret,  who  might  not  give  testimony  at  a 
public  hearing.  It  was  especially  deemed  advisable  in  the  taking 
of  testimony  of  prisoners  because  no  prisoner  would  speak  his 
mind  freely  if  he  thought  it  would  thereafter  prejudice  him  either 
in  his  treatment  at  the  institution,  or  in  the  matter  of  securing 
a  parole  or  pardon.  Every  witness,  and  especially  every  prisoner, 
was  assured  that  the  committee  desired  the  absolute  truth,  but  that 
the  details  of  the  testimony  would  not  be  given  to  the  public  nor 
the  name  of  the  witness  disclosed.  The  result  of  the  investigation 
has  fully  justified  the  method  adopted  by  the  committee. 

Four  different  hearings  were  held  in  the  city  of  Des  Moines  and 
testimony  was  taken  at  the  penitentiary  at  Fort  Madison  upon  two 
different  occasions. 

While  at  Fort  Madison  the  committee  inspected  every  part  of 
the  institution,  the  warden’s  office,  the  cell  house,  the  individual 
cells,  the  bedding  and  furnishing  in  each  cell,  the  cell  used  as  a 
solitary  chamber,  the  dining  room,  the  kitchen,  the  refrigerator  the 
prison  yard  and  grounds,  the  cell  house  in  process  of  construction, 


—  6  — 

the  work  shops,  the  machinery  used  therein,  the  nature  of  the  work, 
saw  the  food  in  the  process  of  preparation,  was  in  the  dining  room 
at  the  noon  hour,  inspected  the  cells  at  night  when  the  doors  were 
closed  and  the  men  locked  in  their  cells. 

We  examined  under  oath  nearly  one  hundred  prisoners,  giving 
opportunity,  in  so  far  as  possible,  for  all  who  desired  to  give  testi¬ 
mony  and  selected  miscellaneously  and  examined  a  large  number  of 
other  prisoners.  In  addition  to  that  the  committee  visited  the 
prison  at  night,  and  jointly  and  separately  interrogated  prisoners 
in  their  cells.  The  same  thing  was  done  at  the  prison  yard  on 
Saturday  afternoon  where  the  men  were  enjoying  a  half  holiday 
by  indulging  in  a  ball  game. 

The  witness  Haley  was  given  the  greatest  length  of  time  to  set 
forth  his  charges.  The  committee  also  examined  at  the  hotel  a 
large  number  of  the  leading  professional  and  business  men  of  the 
city  of  Fort  Madison. 

The  committee  then  visited  the  Illinois  penitentiary  at  Joliet  and 
held  a  conference  with  Warden  Murphy;  also  the  Indiana  peniten¬ 
tiary  at  Michigan  City,  and  held  a  conference  with  Warden  Fog¬ 
arty,  and  inspected  these  institutions  in  considerable  detail. 

The  committee  also  visited  our  Reformatory  at  Anamosa,  the  In¬ 
dustrial  School  for  Boys  at  Eldora,  the  Inebriate  Hospital  at  Knox¬ 
ville,  the  Industrial  School  for  Girls  at  Mitchellville, 

In  addition  to  this,  the  attorney  general  on  behalf  of  the  com¬ 
mittee  visited  the  United  States  Penitentiary  at  Leavenworth, 
Kansas ; 

The  New  York  State  Reformatory  at  Elmira,  a  pioneer  in  the 
reformatory  work,  which  perhaps  has  the  largest  appropriations 
and  best  equipment  of  any  like  institution  in  the  world,  now  under 
the  supervision  of  P.  J.  McDonnell,  a  man  who  has  been  connected 
with  penal* institutions  for  over  thirty  years; 

The  Ohio  State  Reformatory  at  Mansfield  in  charge  of  Dr.  James 
A.  Leonard.  Dr.  Leonard  is  recognized  as  a  prison  authority  of 
high  standing  and  his  institution  is  evidence  of  his  great  business 
ability  combined  with  ability  to  secure  a  high  degree  of  discipline 
under  a  very  humane  system  which  contains  the  latest  reformatory 
methods,  the  Reformatory  at  Elmira  and  at  Mansfield  being  per¬ 
haps  the  best  known  in  foreign  countries  of  American  penal  in¬ 
stitutions; 

The*  State  Agricultural  and  Industrial  School  at  Industry,  New 
York,  a  reformatory  for  boys,  under  the  supervision  of  Prof.  Frank- 


7 


lin  II.  Briggs,  where  the  cottage  or  group  system  has  been  carried 
to  its  logical  conclusion,  and  perhaps  to  a  greater  perfection  than 
any  like  institution  in  the  country.  This  school  and  reformatory 
is  located  upon  a  tract  of  land  of  over  1400  acres  on  the  Erie  Rail¬ 
way  in  Monroe  county,  about  twenty  miles  from  Rochester,  and 
consists  of  about  thirty-five  cottages  or  groups  arranged  to  accom¬ 
modate  not  to  exceed  twenty-five  in  each  group  with  no  common 
communication  between  groups,  each  group  being  carefully  selected 
and  classified; 

The  George  Junior  Republic  at  Freeville,  New  York,  the  first 
institution  of  its  kind  in  the  world,  founded  by  William  R.  George ; 
a  Republic  whose  inmates  are  “citizens”,  although  under  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  and  who  make,  execute  and  interpret  their  own 
laws,  the  girls  enjoying  full  franchise;  a  place  where  each  “citizen” 
receives  exactly  what  he  earns  and  no  more,  the  labor  being  paid 
for  in  the  coin  of  the  Republic  but  redeemable  in  United  States 
money  at  its  full  face  value  when  a  ‘  ‘  citizen  ’  ’  leaves  the  Republic ; 

The  New  York  penitentiary  at  Auburn,  which  has  an  average 
prison  population  from  1,000  to  1,500 ; 

The  United  States  Workhouse  or  district  farm  of  the  District 
of  Columbia  of  the  United  States  located  near  Occoquan,  Virginia, 
an  institution  where  short  term  prisoners  of  the  District  of  Colum¬ 
bia  are  committed,  and  those  not  subject  to  be  sent  to  the  United 
States  penitentiary  at  Leavenworth  or  at  Atlanta.  This  institu¬ 
tion  consists  of  a  farm  of  1150  acres  and  was  established  in  response 
to  a  recommendation  made  by  former  President  Roosevelt  fol¬ 
lowing  the  lines  suggested  by  an  investigating  committee  appointed 
by  Mr.  Roosevelt,  consisting  of  Robert  V.  Ladow,  Wendell  P.  Staf¬ 
ford  and  John  Joy  Edson.  This  farm  is  operated  like  any  large 
farm,  all  kinds  of  agriculture  being  engaged  in,  and  also  stock 
raising,  dairying  and  poultry;  in  addition  to  this,  the  farm  is 
equipped  with  a  large  brick  plant  with  the  latest  improved  ma¬ 
chinery  and  a  large  stone  crusher.  Mr.  W.  IT.  Whittaker,  Superin¬ 
tendent,  has  demonstrated  the  practicability  of  employing  short 
term  men  at  farm  labor  and  operating  a  farm  in  connection  with 
manufacturing  and  other  industries  under  one  management.  A 
woman’s  colony  is  also  operated  in  connection  with  this  farm; 

The  Detroit  House  of  Correction  at  Detroit,  Michigan,  an  in¬ 
stitution  for  short  term  prisoners,  which,  under  the  supervision  of 
John  L.  McDonell,  a  man  who  considers  the  welfare  of  the  prisoners 
as  the  chief  end  to  be  obtained  and  yet  has  demonstrated  beyond 


—  8  — 

question  the  possibility  of  working  short  term  prisoners,  both  men 
and  women,  with  an  economic  advantage  to  the  city  and  state 
under  the  state  account  system,  and  paying  each  prisoner  whose 
conduct  is  good  a  daily  compensation  to  go  to  the  support  of  the 
family,  if  any;  if  not,  to  be  retained  for  the  use  of  the  prisoner 
upon  his  release. 

,The  large  Maryland  penitentiary  located  at  Baltimore  under  the 
supervision  of  Warden  Wyler,  perhaps  the  most  successfully  man¬ 
aged  institution  in  the  United  States  from  a  financial  stand-point, 
where  the  prisoners  are  employed  almost  exclusively  at  contract 
labor,  but  where  substantially  none  of  the  reformatory  methods  are 
adopted  ; 

The  New  York  City  Workhouse  at  Blackwell’s  Island; 

Central  Prisons,  Canada,  now  located  in  the  city  of  Toronto,  but 
with  a  large  prison  farm  at  Guelph,  the  buildings  of  which  will 
soon  be  completed  and  all  of  the  prisoners  transferred  from  Toronto. 
This  institution  is  in  charge  of  Dr.  Gilmore  who,  in  the  construction 
of  prison  buildings  and  in  the  management  of  the  prison  farm  at 
Guelph,  is  following  the  modern  reformatory  plans  and  methods. 
/The  farm  contains  the  largest  dairy  bam  in  the  Province. 

In  addition  to  visiting  these  several  institutions  and  holding  con¬ 
ferences  with  the  superintendents  and  wardens,  staying  at  some  of 
the  institutions  for  a  day  and  over,  the  attorney  general  spent  a 
day  with  Dr.  E.  Stagg  Whitin,  Professor  in  social  legislation, 
Columbia  University,  General  Secretary  of  the  National  Committee 
on  Prison  Labor,  and  author  of  the  late  work  entitled  “Penal 
Servitude.  ’  ’  Dr.  Whitin  has  made  a  study  for  years  of  prison  labor 
in  connection  with  penal  institutions  of  every  state  in  the  Union, 
and  in  substantially  every  civilized  country  in  the  world. 

A  part  of  a  day  was  also  spent  with  Dr.  Charles  R.  Henderson, 
Professor  of  Sociology  in  the  Chicago  University,  now  United  States 
Commissioner  of  the  International  Prison  Commission  and  formerly 
president  of  the  International  Prison  Congress  which  was  held  at 
Washington,  D.  C.,  and  author  of  a  number  of  recognized  works 
on  prison  reform  and  prison  discipline,  including  the  work  entitled 
“Outdoor  Labor  for  Convicts,”  a  report  made  to  his  Excellency, 
Governor  C.  S.  Deneen  in  1906,  which  contains  reference  to  out¬ 
door  labor  for  convicts  in  every  civilized  country  in  the  world. 

An  interview  was  also  had  with  Mr.  Frank  R.  McDonald,  Super¬ 
intendent  of  the  Workhouse  in  Minneapolis,  who  took  charge  of  a 
workhouse  which  had  been  an  utter  failure  and  has  made  great 


—  9  — 


success  of  the  same  notwithstanding  he  has  been  handling  short 
term  prisoners. 

In  addition  to  this,  inquiries  were  submitted  to  many  wardens 
throughout  the  United  States  concerning  the  condition  and  opera¬ 
tion  of  their  institutions,  the  annual  and  biennial  reports  of  war¬ 
dens  generally  examined,  and  from  an  examination  of  proceedings 
and  reports  of  International  Prison  Congresses  and  penal  literature 
some  information  was  received  concerning  the  penal  institutions  of 
other  countries. 

The  attorney  general  also  submitted  a  letter  of  inquiry  to  each 
county  attorney  in  the  state  requesting  detailed  information  with 
reference  to  the  condition  and  operation  of  the  jails  of  the  state  of 
Iowa. 

When  the  committee  started  its  work  it  had  no  intention  of  ex¬ 
tending  the  scope  of  the  investigation  beyond  the  matters  com¬ 
plained  of  in  connection  with  the  penitentiary  at  Fort  Madison. 
We  had  not,  however,  examined  more  than  fifteen  or  twenty  wit¬ 
nesses  at  the  penitentiary  until  it  was  perfectly  apparent  that  there 
was  something  hack  of  the  complaints  far  more  fundamental  than 
a  controversy  between  the  warden  and  the  prisoner  Haley,  or  be¬ 
tween  any  public  official  and  private  citizen,  and  the  committee 
came  to  the  conclusion  then,  and  is  firmly  confirmed  in  the  opinion 
now,  that  until  a  fundamental  change  is  made  in  the  system  itself, 
intermittent  complaints  will  break  out  from  time  to  time  and  be¬ 
come  more  or  less  insistent  as  time  goes  on. 


PART  I. 

THE  CHARACTER  ANO  INTEGRITY  OF  THE  WARDER. 

The  first  complaint  considered  is  the  charges  made  against  the 
honesty  and  the  moral  character  of  the  warden.  A  most  thorough 
investigation  was  made  with  reference  to  this  complaint  because  it 
would  necessarily  throw  much  light  upon  all  the  other  charges. 

The  committee  is  unanimous  in  its  opinion  that  the  attack  made 
upon  the  warden’s  moral  character  and  his  personal  honesty  was 
malicious  in  its  nature.  It  originated  from  former  discharged  em¬ 
ployees  of  the  prison,  unsuccessful  applicants  for  positions  and  a 


—  10 


few  prisoners  and  former  inmates  of  the  prison  who  had  had  some 
difficulty  with  the  warden. 

Notwithstanding  the  personal  motive  of  these  men,  the  committee 
considered  the  evidence  very  carefully,  and  after  cross  examining 
witnesses  and  subjecting  the  testimony  to  the  usual  tests,  we  believe 
the  testimony  to  be  unreliable  and  that  the  charges  were  made 
largely  from  motives  of  spite  and  revenge.  We  also  examined  a 
large  number  of  the  leading  professional  and  business  men  of  Fort 
Madison  and  the  unanimous  verdict  of  these  men  is  that  Warden 
Sanders  is  a  man  of  good  character;  that  they  believe  him  to  be 
honest  and  entitled  to  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  best  citizens 
,  of  the  community. 

It  was  charged  by  some  that  the  warden  had  deposited  money  of 
the  prisoners  at  the  banks  and  personally  received  interest  upon 
such  deposits.  The  testimony,  however,  of  the  bank  officials  of  Fort 
Madison  disclosed  the  fact  that  this  statement  was  false  in  every 
particular. 

The  charge  made  that  the  warden  personally  received  from  the 
merchants  in  the  city  a  discount  upon  supplies  furnished  to  the 
prisoners  was  refuted  absolutely  by  the  several  merchants  from 
whom  he  purchased  the  supplies.  He  received  a  ten  per  cent  dis¬ 
count  in  the  purchase  of  clothing  but  it  was  a  discount  on  the  cost 
price  of  the  clothing  which  was  entirely  proper  as  the  prisoners 
received  the  benefit  of  the  discount. 

It  was  claimed  that  an  examination  of  the  books  of  the  institution 
would  disclose  something  improper  upon  the  part  of  the  warden. 
The  committee  inquired  particularly  into  this  matter  and  had  a 
careful  examination  made  of  the  books  by  F.  H.  Paul,  State 
Accountant,  and  the  investigation  disclosed  that  “  there  is  nothing 
in  the  books  or  the  method  of  keeping  them  that  would  lead  one  to 
suspect  any  irregularities  in  the  purchases  made  for  the  prisoners,  or 
the  keeping  of  their  respective  accounts”. 


—  11 


9 


PART  II. 

THE  PHYSICAL  AND  SANITARY  CONDITION  OF  THE  INSTITUTION. 

In  reporting  upon  the  second  complaint  relating  to  the  physical 
and  sanitary  condition  of  the  institution,  the  committee  can  only 
speak  of  its  condition  as  it  was  during  our  different  visits  and  in¬ 
vestigations. 


THE  CELL  HOUSE. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  cell  house  is  not  modern 
having  been  constructed  over  half  a  century  ago ;  the  cells  are  small 
and  damp  and  so  constructed  as  to  admit  of  but  little  sunlight. 
There  is  no  running  water  or  sewer  system  and  formerly  wooden 
buckets  were  used  for  the  disposal  of  the  night  soil,  although  these 
were  abondoned  before  the  committee  visited  the  institution  and 
we  found  metal  buckets  in  use  thoroughly  cleansed  and  aired. 

The  condition  of  this  old  cell  house  was  reported  to  the  thirty- 
first  general  assembly  by  an  investigating  committee  composed  of 
Honorable  C.  G.  Saunders,  F.  F.  Jones  and  M.  L.  Temple.  They 
aptly  described  its  condition  at  that  time.  On  page  84  of  the  Senate 
Journal,  1906,  this  committee  stated: 

‘  ‘  The  prison  cell  house  of  Ft.  Madison  was  erected  many 
years  ago,  before  many  of  the  modern  improvements  were 
known  and  has  outlived  its  usefulness.  *  *  *  Is  entirely 
unfit  to  be  used  as  such  and  in  the  judgment  of  your  com- 
mitee  is  a  disgrace  to  the  great  state  of  Iowa,  being  unfit 
for  human  habitation  and  should  be  replaced  by  a  new  one 
at  the  earliest  possible  time. 

We  found,  however,  that  the  ventilators  were  in  good  working 
order  both  day  and  night  and  the  air  fairly  good.  We  found  the 
cells  clean;  that  each  cell  was  scrubbed  about  once  every  week,  and 
received  regular  sanitary  treatment  to  prevent  vermin.  We  found 
the  bedding,  kitchen,  dining  room  and  refrigerator  clean,  but  the 
dining  room  and  kitchen  are  small.  The  tables  in  the  dining  room 
are  so  arranged  as  to  require  the  handling  of  the  dishes  by  fellow 
prisoners  in  serving  food  to  other  prisoners  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  table.  While  this  arrangement  is  customary  in  many  penal 
institutions  of  the  United  States,  in  modern  institutions  the  tables 


—  12 


are  so  arranged  that  every  prisoner  can  be  served  direct  by  the 
waiter  without  the  food  or  dishes  being  handled  by  fellow  prisoners. 
This  defect  should  be  remedied  because  of  sanitary  conditions  and 
because  one  prisoner  does  not  desire  to  have  his  food  or  dishes 
handled  by  a  fellow  prisoner  who  he  knows  or  suspects  is  unclean. 

THE  RE-SERVING  OF  UNEATEN  MEAT. 

Considerable  complaint  was  lodged  with  the  committee  by  pris¬ 
oners  with  reference  to  the  hash  served  at  the  institution.  It  was 
stated  that  portions  of  meat  uneaten  by  prisoners  were  collected 
from  the  tables  at  the  end  of  each  meal,  returned  to  the  kitchen, 
trimmed  and  washed  and  put  into  hash.  We  found  this  to  be  true; 
that  the  custom  was  inaugurated  by  some  member  of  the  board  of 
control  several  years  ago. 

The  committee  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  practice  never  should 
have  been  adopted  at  an  institution  of  this  kind,  and  that  unless 
already  abandoned,  as  we  are  advised  it  is,  it  should  be  discontinued 
at  once.  It  should  be  remembered  that  a  considerable  number  of 
men  confined  in  the  penitentiary  are  diseased,  and  for  this  reason 
every  sanitary  precaution  should  be  taken.  The  condition  of  other 
prisoners  is  better  known  to  the  prison  population  than  to  the 
warden  and  outsiders,  and  prisoners  are  as  averse  to  eating  any¬ 
thing  if  handled  by  a  prisoner,  who  is  either  unclean  or  diseased, 
as  the  average  free  person;  that  being  true,  a  great  many  refuse 
to  eat  the  hash  when  mixed  with  new  meat.  It  is  therefore  not 
only  unsanitary,  but  an  economic  waste. 

/ 

THE  FOOD. 

Aside  from  the  objections  to  the  hash,  we  found  the  food  of  a 
wholesome  variety  and  a  sufficient  quantity  for  each  prisoner,  but 
the  committee  believes  that  the  standard  should  in  no  event  be 
lowered. 


THE  HOSPITAL. 

We  visited  the  hospital  and  found  it  clean  and  sanitary  but  it 
lacks  the  necessary  equipment,  size  and  sunlight ;  in  other  words, 
it  is  inadequate  to  the  needs  of  the  institution. 


—  13  — 


THE  WORKSHOPS. 

We  visited  the  workshops  and  in  so  far  as  we  could  discover  the 
machinery  was  in  good  condition  and  supplied  with  guards  and 
fenders,  but  some  of  the  floors  of  the  shops  are  in  bad  condition 
and  some  other  general  repairs  are  needed  about  the  building. 

LABOR  COMMISSIONER  SHOULD  MAKE  INSPECTION. 

We  believe,  however,  that  our  laws  should  be  so  amended  as  to 
expressly  require  the  state  labor  commissioner  to  inspect  all  ma¬ 
chinery  in  use  in  all  of  the  state  institutions,  with  authority  to  direct 
that  fenders  and  guards  be  supplied  where  needed,  and  that  all 
necessary  changes  be  made. 

We  understand  that  the  labor  commissioner  now  inspects  the 
machinery  in  state  institutions  but  there  is  no  express  provision  in 
the  law  requiring  it  or  defining  his  authority. 


PART  III. 

TNE  GENERAL  MANAGEMENT  OF  THE  INSTITUTION. 

An  investigation  into  the  last  division  of  the  complaint,  viz: 
the  general  management  of  the  institution,  was  much  more  difficult 
and  complex  than  the  investigation  of  the  two  previous  divisions, 
for  the  reason  that  the  very  foundation  of  penal  labor,  penal  dis¬ 
cipline  and  reform  is  involved.  It  combines  at  one  and  the  same 
time  a  great  economic,  social  and  moral  question. 

The  number  of  complaints  made  to  the  committee  in  the  taking  of 
the  testimony  were  too  numerous  to  receive  separate  treatment,  some 
were  trivial,  some  were  very  serious. 

There  was  complaint  made  with  reference  to  the  receiving  of 
supplies  and  it  was  charged  that  the  warden  had  trafficked  with 
prisoners;  it  was  claimed  that  the  warden  was  too  lax  in  his  dis¬ 
cipline,  and  it  was  also  claimed  that  he  was  too  severe  in  his  punish¬ 
ment;  that  the  solitary  was  used  by  the  warden  and  his  deputy 
upon  slight  provocation ;  it  was  claimed  that  prisoners  did  not  re¬ 
ceive  proper  dental  treatment;  objections  were  also  made  to  the 
prison  physician;  much  criticism  was  made  of  the  guards;  it  was 
also  claimed  that  men  were  compelled  to  work  upon  contract  when 


—  14 


they  were  not  physically  able ;  that  they  were  denied  parol  because 
of  their  skill  and  strength  which  made  them  valuable  to  the  con¬ 
tractor;  it  was  charged  that  the  warden  or  some  member  of  his 
family  had  a  private  interest  in  the  contracts;  there  was  complaint 
against  the  foremen  and  private  employees  of  the  contractors;  it 
was  claimed  that  not  only  the  guards  but  that  the  foremen  and  other 
employees  of  the  contractors  co-operated  with  the  prisoners  in  pass¬ 
ing  of  letters  and  information  in  and  out  of  the  institution,  and 
also  in  the  passing  of  various  articles  including  liquor,  drugs  and 
dope. 

The  committee  is  of  the  opinion  that  nearly  all  of  these  com¬ 
plaints  are  due  to  the  present  system  which  is  in  operation  at  the 
penitentiary  at  Fort  Madison,  and  that  if  there  was  an  annual 
change  in  wardens  the  same  or  similar  complaints  would  follow 
each  change  of  administration.  In  making  this  statement  we  do 
not  wish  to  be  understood  that  the  present  warden  has  made  no 
mistakes,  but  we  are  agreed  that  on  the  whole  the  complaints  are 
a  result  of  the  system  in  use,  the  condition  of  the  old  cell  house  and 
a  lack  of  other  facilities  which  the  warden  is  unable  to  secure. 

THE  PRISONERS’  MAIL. 

With  reference  to  the  complaint  of  the  handling  of  the  mail  of 
prisoners  a  number  of  these  complaints  made  by  prisoners  are  en¬ 
tirely  unwarranted.  It  was  found  that  some  of  the  prisoners  were 
men  of  very  bad  character  who  were  attempting  to  communicate 
with  other  bad  characters  outside  the  institution,  in  some  instances 
men  who  were  known  to  be  professional  crooks.  The  warden,  in 
all  such  instances,  and  in  every  instance  where  prisoners  indulged  in 
the  use  of  vulgar  and  obscene  language  in  their  letters,  was  entirely 
justified  of  course  in  intercepting  all  such  communications.  The 
warden,  has,  however,  to  a  large  extent  attempted  to  personally 
look  after  the  mail,  and  during  his  absence,  the  same  has  been  in¬ 
spected  by  his  wife.  The  warden  of  a  great  institution  like  Fort 
Madison  has  too  many  important  duties  to  perform  to  read  all  the 
mail  of  the  prisoners.  He  should  have  a  mail  clerk  whose  primary 
business  should  be  to  read  all  the  mail,  in  and  out,  except  such  mail 
as  may  be  communicated  under  seal  to  the  governor,  attorney  gen¬ 
eral  and  the  board  of  control.  Objectionable  matters  should  be 
promptly  referred  to  the  warden  and  all  mail  which  is  not  objec¬ 
tionable  should  be  in  the  hands  of  the  prisoners  the  same  day  it  is 


— 15  — 


received  and  outgoing  mail  should  be  forwarded  the  same  day  it 
is  received.  If  objectionable  matter  is  contained  in  the  letter,  un¬ 
less  some  plot  of  escape  or  something  of  that  nature  is  attempted, 
the  prisoner  should  be  promptly  notified  that  the  letter  cannot  be 
forwarded  for  that  reason.  Objectionable  matter  should  be  held 
in  the  possession  of  the  warden  to  be  turned  over  to  the  prisoner 
at  the  time  of  his  release  from  the  institution. 

THE  FOOD. 

The  nature  of  the  food  and  the  serving  of  hash  having  been  re¬ 
ferred  to  in  Division  II,  need  no  further  consideration  here. 

WARDEN  TRAFFICKING  WITH  PRISONERS. 

We  found  there  was  some  merit  to  the  complaint  made  that  the 
warden  had  formerly  sold  some  supplies  to  the  prisoners.  The 
warden  admitted  that  for  convenience  he  had  purchased  some  sup¬ 
plies  and  re-sold  them  to  the  prisoners,  but  he  stated  there  was  no 
profit  or  gain  accruing  to  liimself.  It  was  also  admitted  that  Mrs. 
Sanders  had  furnished  some  milk  to  the  prisoners.  This  custom, 
however,  was  abandoned  before  we  visited  the  institution.  We 
found  that  the  price  paid  Mrs.  Sanders  for  the  milk  was  less  than 
the  current  market  price,  and  all  the  testimony  that*  was  offered 
even  by  prisoners  opposed  to  the  warden  was  to  the  effect  that 
the  quality  was  better  than  that  secured  from  the  dairymen,-  in 
other  words,  so  far  as  the  milk  proposition  was  concerned,  whatever 
transactions  took  place  between  the  prisoners  and  Mrs.  Sanders  was 
to  the  prisoner’s  benefit.  As  before  stated,  this  custom  has  been 
abandoned. 

The  committee  finds  that  notwithstanding  any  advantages  that 
may  accrue  to  the  prisoners  by  purchasing  articles  from  any  of  the 
prison  authorities  that  the  practice  should  never  prevail,  for  the 
reason  that  the  opportunities  for  abuse  are  too  great,  and  for  the 
further  reason  it  furnishes  a  means  for  prisoners  to  cast  reflection 
upon  the  integrity  of  prison  officials.  Therefore,  as  stated  before, 
such  practices  should  be  absolutely  prohibited. 

TREATMENT  OF  PRISONERS. 

With  reference  to  the  treatment  of  prisoners  it  is  significant  that 
the  warden  has  been  charged  with  being  too  lax  in  discipline  and 
at  the  same  time  it  is  charged  that  the  punishment  administered 
has  been  too  severe. 


16  — 


The  testimony,  including  the  evidence  of  a  large  number  of  pris¬ 
oners,  is  convincing  that  Warden  Sanders  is  much  more  humane 
in  his  treatment  of  prisoners  than  some  of  the  former  wardens. 
Except  for  the  use  of  the  solitary,  this  committee  found  no  evidence 
of  harsh  or  improper  punishment. 

On  the  whole  we  believe  the  warden  to  be  a  man  of  broad  sym¬ 
pathies  and  that  he  has  adopted  a  number  of  changes  in  the  interest 
and  welfare  of  the  prisoners.  This  conclusion  finds  support  by 
such  prison  workers  as  Maud  Ballington  Booth,  Mrs.  Florence  E. 
Maybrick,  Rev.  Chas.  Parsons,  Superintendent  of  the  Society  for 
the  Friendless,  and  Mr.  Thomas  McClary,  a  Chautauqua  lecturer, 
who  have,  without  solicitation,  written  the  committee  that  from 
their  visits  to  the  institution  they  were  impressed  with  the  kindness 
shown  by  the  warden  to  the  prisoners,  and  Mrs.  Booth  was  espe¬ 
cially  commendatory  of  Warden  Sanders  because  of  the  granting  to 
the  prisoners  the  privilege  of  the  yard  Saturday  afternoons  for  the 
purpose  of  base  ball  and  other  games. . 

THE  SOLITARY. 

The  solitary,  as  before  stated,  is  still  in  use  and  we  found  that 
prisoners  were  sometimes  fastened  to  the  door,  the  prisoner’s  hands 
being  placed  between  the  rods  of  the  inner  door  and  fastened  to¬ 
gether  from  the  outside  which  prevents  the  prisoner  from  walking 
about  or  from  lying  down. 

While  the  solitary  is  in  use  in  nearly  all  the  penal  institutions 
of  the  country,  many  innovations  have  been  made  in  its  use  as  a 
means  of  discipline.  Formerly  in  some  states  the  solitary  chamber 
admitted  of  no  outside  light  but  a  dim  light  was  kept  within  so  that 
the  prisoner  could  not  tell  when  it  was  day  or  night  and  he  was 
fastened  by  the  thumbs  or  wrists  to  the  ceiling.  These  cruel 
methods  of  punishment  have  been  generally  abandoned  and  with 
good  results  and  the  fastening  of  the  prisoner  to  the  door  as  a  means 
of  punishment  is  also  being  discontinued  by  the  leading  institutions 
of  the  country. 

Dr.  Leonard  of  Mansfield  makes  use  of  a  large  cell  as  a  solitary 
for  confining  unruly  prisoners,  but  the  cell  admits  of  an  abundance 
of  sunlight,  plenty  of  fresh  air  and  no  impediments  at  all  are 
placed  upon  the  prisoner.  At  Mansfield  it  is  called  a  “Reflection 
Chamber”  and  the  prisoner  is  confined  there  for  a  sufficient  length 
of  time  to  calmly  reflect  upon  his  unruly  conduct,  but  never  an 


—  17  — 


unreasonable  length  of  time.  This  method  is  followed  in  many  in¬ 
stitutions. 

We  believe  that  the  time  has  arrived  when  it  is  no  longer  neces¬ 
sary  to  fasten  a  prisoner  to  the  cell  door  or  place  any  other  im¬ 
pediments  upon  his  movements,  unless  possibly  he  is  insane  or  there 
are  some  other  extreme  or  unusual  circumstances.  The  solitary 
cell,  when  used,  should  be  used  merely  as  a  reflection  chamber  as 
is  being  done  by  Dr.  Leonard  and  a  large  number  of  other  prison 
officials  who  have  discovered  that  cruel  and  severe  forms  of  pun¬ 
ishment  are  entirely  unnecessary,  but  on  the  contrary  that  harm 
results  rather  than  good.  The  cell  should  contain  plenty  of  fresh 
air  and  admit  of  sunlight. 

The  committee  further  believes  that  under  the  system  which  will 
hereafter  be  described  in  detail  and  recommended,  a  radical  change 
can  be  made  in  prison  discipline  but  under  the  system  now  in  use 
the  committee  has  no  criticism  or  recommendations  to  make  other 
than  as  above  suggested. 


PRISONER  HALEY. 

In  this  connection  some  reference  should  be  made  to  the  prisoner 
Haley  inasmuch  as  he  has  filed  charges  against  the  warden  claiming 
that  the  warden  and  his  deputy  were  cruel  to  prisoners,  and  also 
charging  general  mismanagement  of  the  institution.  He  also  at¬ 
tacked  the  warden’s  private  character.  Having  discussed  the  war¬ 
den’s  character  in  Division  I  it  needs  no  further  reference. 

It  would  not  be  profitable  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  de¬ 
tails  of  the  difficulties  existing  between  the  warden  and  the  prisoner 
Haley.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  warden  offers  two  things  which 
he  claims  has  had  a  material  bearing  upon  his  treatment  of  Mr. 
Haley.  Haley  secured  the  publication  of  a  letter  by  passing  it  out 
of  the  institution  not  in  the  regular  way,  but  clandestinely.  Haley 
also  refused,  and  still  refuses,  to  work  upon  the  contract.  These 
were  material  considerations,  if  not  the  entire  grounds  of  the  war¬ 
den  placing  Haley  in  a  cell.  He  was  not,  however,  placed  in  the 
solitary  but  placed  in  a  regular  cell  with  a  screen  over  the  cell  door 
to  prevent  the  passage  of  things  in  and  out. 

No  just  conception  can  be  formed  of  the  difficulties  between  the 
warden  and  Haley  without  a  knowledge  of  Haley’s  character. 
While  he  is  a  man  who  never  received  a  great  deal  of  school  train- 
2 


—  18  — 


ing,  he  has  a  keen  intellect,  a  very  good  use  of  the  English  language, 
was  formerly  editor  of  the  Prison  Press  at  Anamosa,  and  in  that 
position  made  many  influential  acquaintances;  he  is  intensely  ser¬ 
ious  by  nature,  never  smiles,  has  no  sense  of  humor  and  excessively 
egoistic.  In  addition  to  this  he  is  a  man  of  persistency  and  deter¬ 
mination,  suspicious  by  nature,  but  not  particularly  aggressive. 
He  does  not,  however,  have  any  accurate  conception  of  his  proper 
relation  to  his  fellow  prisoners,  the  officers  of  the  institution,  to  the 
state  or  society.  If  he  and  a  public  official,  an  officer  of  the  institu¬ 
tion,  a  fellow  prisoner,  or  a  sympathizing  friend,  who  has  under¬ 
taken  to  assist  him,  has  any  conflict  he  never  recognizes  that  it  is 
possible  for  him  to  be  in  error  even  in  the  slightest  degree.  If  he 
were  a  free  man  and  was  social  in  his  nature,  his  seriousness  and  his 
determination  would  make,  him  a  martyr.  Since,  however,  he 
measures  everything  in  its  relation  toward  himself  he  presents  a 
problem  which  might  baffle  the  ingenuity  of  the  greatest  disciplin¬ 
arians  or  our  leading  penologists.  He  combines  in  a  remarkable 
degree  seriousness,  determination,  keenness  of  perception  with 
illogical  thinking.  It  would  be  hard  to  find  either  in  fact  or  fiction 
a  man  more  egoistic  than  Haley. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  a  man  of  such  nature  is  entirely  anti¬ 
social.  He  refuses  to  conform  to  any  rules,  regulations  or  require¬ 
ments  unless  they  meet  with  his  own  approval.  The  warden  feels 
that  Haley  cannot  be  placed  in  a  position  of  trust  where  he  can 
mingle  and  cummunicate  indiscriminately  with  other  prisoners. 
Plaley  was  formerly  librarian  and  would  like  to  have  continued  in 
that  capacity.  He  has  been  transferred  from  his  cell  to  the  hos¬ 
pital;  but  again  returned  to  his  cell.  He  objected  to  being  placed  in 
the  hospital*  That  his  health  is  being  impaired  by  his  confinement 
there  can  be  no  doubt.  We  have  been  informed  that  he  has  been 
offered  some  of  the  lightest  work  in  the  shops  if  he  would  accept  it, 
with  the  promise  that  if  he  was  unable  to  perform  the  labor  that  he. 
would  be  transferred ;  and  that  he  has  refused  this  offer.  It  is  cer¬ 
tain  that  he  could  not  do  a  hard  day’s  labor.  He  should,  however, 
be  offered  some  light  work  which  he  is  capable  of  doing,  and  if  it 
is  found  that  he  cannot  work  a  day,  let  him  work  a  half  day;  if 
not  a  half  day,  let  him  work  two  or  three  hours  in  the  forenoon. 
If  this  offer  is  again  made  to  prisoner  Haley,  as  we  believe  it  should 
be,  he  should  accept  it  because  he  cannot  in  reason  expect  that  any 
prisoner  can  dictate  the  character  of  labor  that  he  will  perform. 
He  should  accept  any  light  form  of  labor,  which  he  is  perfectly 


—  19  — 


capable  of  performing  without  injury  to  his  health.  Any  man  who 
insists  on  selecting  his  form  of  labor  must  so  conduct  himself  as 
not  to  become  an  inmate  of  the  penitentiary.  If  Haley  refuses  to 
perform  any  labor  then  he  should  be  treated  in  as  humane  a  way  as 
possible  but  so  restricted  that  the  discipline  of  the  institution  will 
not  be  impaired  and  that  no  evil  influence  will  result  to  the  other 
prisoners.  The  good  of  the  many  is  paramount  to  the  convenience 
and  welfare  of  any  individual  no  matter  who  he  may  be. 

DENTAL  TREATMENT. 

Complaint  is  made  by  prisoners  with  reference  to  the  receiving 
of  dental  treatment.  There  is  a  ruling  of  the  board  of  control  that 
any  one  whose  teeth  are  in  such  condition  as  to  injuriously  affect 
his  health  shall  receive  dental  treatment.  There  are,  however,  no 
adequate  funds  and  hence  proper  and  necessary  treatment  is  not 
being  furnished. 

The  committee  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  provisions  with  reference 
to  the  furnishing  of  dental  treatment  are  not  sufficient.  No  one 
who  is  confined  in  the  institution  should  be  deprived  of  proper  den¬ 
tal  treatment,  if  there  is  any  real  need  for  the  same,  therefore  better 
and  additional  provisions  for  the  furnishing  of  dental  treatment 
should  be  provided. 

THE  PRISON  PHYSICIAN. 

Complaint  is  also  made  with  reference  to  the  institutional  phy¬ 
sician.  The  warden  says  that  the  physician  is  a  conscientious,  cap¬ 
able  man.  This  committee  has  no  way  of  passing  upon  the  profes¬ 
sional  ability  of  the  present  physician.  We  do  know,  however,  that 
it  is  impossible  to  secure  the  proper  medical  treatment  for  a  large 
number  of  men  working  in  confinement  and  under  the  environment 
of  the  institution,  at  least  twenty  per  cent  of  whom  are  sub-normal, 
a  number  of  whom  are  on  the  border  line  of  insanity,  some  afflicted 
with  private  disease,  others  with  tubercular  trouble,  by  paying  a 
physician  seventy-five  dollars  per  month  and  receiving  a  daily  visit 
to  the  institution.  Our  state  is  falling  far  short  of  maintaining 
the  proper  medical  service  and  medical  inspection  which  should 
obtain  at  an  institution  of  this  nature. 

At  the  Reformatory  at  Elmira  there  are  two  physicians  who  give 
their  entire  time  and  attention  to  the  work  of  the  institution.  The 
state  cannot  hope  to  secure  the  services  of  a  capable  physician  upon 


—  20 


the  salary  now  paid.  A  sufficient  salary  should  be  paid  to  secure 
the  services  of  a  competent  physician  who  would  give  his  entire 
time  to  the  work.  The  physician  should  be  something  more  than  a 
dispenser  of  pills  or  an  operator  in  a  case  of  appendicitis.  He 
should  be  an  alienist  as  well  as  a  physician.  It  is  well  known  that  a 
large  part  of  these  men  are  abnormal.  Upon  their  entrance  into  the 
prison  every  man  should  receive  the  most  thorough  examination, 
and  further  examination  should  be  made  from  time  to  time,  espe¬ 
cially  of  those  who  are  not  normal,  but  in  order  to  properly  under¬ 
stand  the  prisoner,  the  physician  must  study  him  from  day  to  day. 
He  must  he  seen  at  work  and  during  recreation  hours  as  well  as  at 
the  physician’s  office.  The  purpose  of  the  examination  is  not  mere¬ 
ly  to  determine  whether  he  has  some  offensive  private  disease,  but 
in  order  that  the  physician  may  completely  understand  the  prisoner. 
If  he  is  below  normal,  either  mentally  or  physically,  the  exact  defect 
should  be  known  as  soon  as  possible  after  his  entrance.  This  is  a 
matter  which  cannot  receive  too  much  emphasis.  Many  a  man  in 
a  penal  institution  finds  himself  in  the  solitary  when  perhaps  the 
cause  of  the  difficulty  was  due  to  some  fundamental  defect  which 
rendered  the  prisoner  nervous,  undermined  his  self-control  and 
hence  caused  him  to  be  unruly  and  anti-social. 

A  number  of  states  have  already  taken  steps  to  segregate  tuber¬ 
cular  prisoners.  While  the  number  seems  to  be  small  in  Iowa  there 
ought  to  be  complete  segregation  and  isolation  of  all  so  afflicted, 
with  the  latest  and  best  methods  of  treatment.  It  is  well  known 
that  in  nearly  every  penal  institution  there  are  a  number  who  are 
on  the  border  line  of  insanity  and  who  should  therefore  receive 
special  treatment.  It  is  also  true  that  every  penal  institution  has 
a  large  number  of  men  with  sexual  diseases.  These  ought  also  to  be 
completely  segregated  and  receive  special  treatment.  It  is,  how¬ 
ever,  impossible  for  any  physician  by  making  a  daily  visit  to  an 
institution  to  keep  thoroughly  advised  as  to  all  such  matters  and 
furnish  the  proper  treatment,  and  also  keep  the  warden  advised 
as  to  the  physical  and  mental  condition  of  all  the  prisoners.  If 
there  was  closer  co-operation  among  the  several  physicians  of  the 
different  state  institutions  it  would  be  well.  A  monthly  or  quarterly 
visit  by  the  alienist  of  the  insane  hospital  to  our  penitentiary  and 
reformatory  for  the  purpose  of  consultation  and  co-operation  with 
the  institutional  physician  would  be  highly  commendatory. 


—  21  — 


THE  GUARDS  AND  SUBORDINATE  OFFICERS  OF  THE 

INSTITUTION. 

Under  any  system  in  the  management  of  a  penal  institution  there 
must  of  necessity  be  loyalty,  fidelity  and  co-operation  on  the  part 
of  the  guards  and  subordinate  officers.  Their  conduct  is  inextricably 
connected  not  only  with  the  general  welfare  of  a  prison  but  also 
abuses  common  to  penal  institutions.  We  found  this  to  be  par¬ 
ticularly  true  in  our  investigation  at  Fort  Madison. 

The  question  of  the  prisoners’  mail,  of  discipline  and  punish¬ 
ments,  reports  with  reference  to  the  work  of  the  prisoners,  the  fur¬ 
nishing  of  supplies  and  other  kindred  and  vital  matters  were  affected 
as  much  or  more  by  the  attitude  of  the  guard  as  by  the  attitude 
of  the  warden.  We  found  that  there  were  a  number  of  guards  at 
the  penitentiary  who  were  not  loyal  to  the  warden,  the  board  of 
control,  nor  the  state.  They  were  conniving  with  prisoners  either 
through  sympathy  or  for  gain. 

The  evidence  is  absolutely  convincing  that  a  number  of  guards 
were  passing  letters  in  and  out  of  the  institution,  and  not  only  that, 
some  of  them  were  furnishing  prisoners  with  morphine,  cocaine 
and  other  kinds  of  dope.  It  seems  to  be  generally  accepted  that  in 
a  number  of  the  penal  institutions  of  the  country,  the  guards 
themselves  traffic  in  dope,  and  it  is  claimed  that  many  a  young 
fellow  who  never  used  dope  when  he  entered  a  prison  left  it  an 
abject  dope  fiend.  Evidence  comes  to  this  committee  that  such  is 
true  within  this  state. 

We  are  advised  that  since  the  visit  of  this  committee  to  the  in¬ 
stitution  three  or  four  guards  have  been  discharged.  The  committee 
recommends  that  every  guard  and  every  subordinate  officer  in  the 
penitentiary  at  Fort  Madison  who  is  either  passing  letters,  passing 
dope  or  in  any  way  planning  and  conniving  with  prisoners  should 
be  promptly  discharged.  Wardens  in  other  prisons  have  attempted 
to  temporize  with  guards  of  this  character  and  suspend  them  or 
reprimand  them.  The  result  has  always  been  that  the  warden  or 
superintendent  has  found  that  he  has  a  far  more  dangerous  man 
in  the  institution  in  the  person  of  the  guard  than  the  prisoner  him¬ 
self.  In  this  regard  there  should  be  no  expediency  or  temporizing. 
Summary  and  absolute  dismissal  is  the  proper  remedy.  In  this 
connection  the  committee  finds  that  the  general  standard  of  the 


—  22 


guards  at  Fort  Madison  is  not  equal  to  the  high  standard  found 
at  the  Mansfield  and  Elmira  Reformatories  and  other  model  penal 
institutions. 

SALARY  OF  GUARDS. 

We  also  find  that  the  wages  paid  to  guards  in  Iowa  are  much 
less  than  the  wages  paid  the  guards  in  a  number  of  the  leading 
penal  institutions  of  the  country.  The  position  of  a  guard  is  a  very 
important  one  and  if  a  young  man  starting  on  his  career  may  be 
secured  who  is  capable,  he  will  not  long  remain  upon  the  salary 
paid  by  our  state.  We  strongly  recommend  a  material  increase  in 
the  salary  of  the  guards  and  other  subordinate  officers  of  the  prison 
to  the  end  that  a  higher  type  of  men  may  be  secured  for  these 
positions.  The  average  compensation  paid  the  guards  at  Fort  Madi¬ 
son  is  fifty-six  dollars  and  eighty-five  cents  per  month,  while  at  a 
number  of  other  institutions  the  average  compensation  paid  the 
guards  ranges  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  ten  dollars  per  month, 
with  perhaps  a  majority  receiving  from  seventy-five  to  eighty  dol¬ 
lars  per  month. 

It  needs  no  argument  to  demonstrate  that  a  man  of  sufficient 
education,  ability  and  character  to  properly  fill  the  responsible  po¬ 
sition  of  guard  cannot  be  permanently  kept  at  a  small  salary  of 
fifty  or  fifty-five  dollars  per  month. 

No  institution  can  be  properly  managed  without  capable,  effi¬ 
cient,  honest  and  loyal  guards. 

THE  EVIL  EFFECTS  OF  CONTRACT  LABOR. 

It  has  been  previously  stated  that  a  large  number  of  the  com¬ 
plaints  were  due  to  the  system  in  use  rather  than  to  the  warden 
or  those  in  charge  of  the  institution.  This  was  impressed  upon 
the  committee  from  time  to  time  during  the  entire  investigation 
and  one  thing  which  is  responsible  for  a  great  many  of  these  com¬ 
plaints  is  the  contract  labor  system.  If  any  member  of  the  com¬ 
mittee  had  any  preconceived  ideas  concerning  contract  labor  in 
penal  institutions  there  was  no  expression  of  the  same.  Indeed,  the 
objections  which  the  committee  has  formed  to  this  system  were  im¬ 
pressed  upon  us  as  a  result  of  this  investigation  from  almost  every 
angle,  from  witnesses  friendly  and  hostile  to  the  present  warden, 
in  the  matter  of  parols,  in  the  matter  of  the  management  by  the 


-23- 


board  of  control,  regardless  of  the  nature  of  the  testimony,  the 
evil  effects  of  contract  labor  became  manifest. 

We  shall  not  attempt  to  set  out  in  detail  the  various  complaints 
and  friction  resulting  from  this  system.  A  few  will  suffice  to  make 
our  position  clear. 

HALEY  REFUSES  TO  WORK  ON  CONTRACT. 

The  committee  was  anxious  to  see  if  some  form  of  labor  could 
not  be  found  for  the  prisoner  Haley  which  he  would  accept.  He 
was  asked  if  he  would  not  accept  some  light  form  of  labor  on  the 
tool  or  chair  contract.  It  was  suggested  to  him  that  there  were 
some  forms  of  labor  with  reference  to  these  contracts  which  was 
performed  by  old  men.  Mr.  Haley’s  reply  was  that  he  would  die 
before  he  would  do  any  work  under  the  contracts. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  the  committee  to  justify  Haley  either  in 
making  the  statement  or  in  taking  such  a  position.  The  fact  that 
he  has  taken  this  position,  however,  is  worthy  of  very  serious  con¬ 
sideration.  In  view  of  his  attitude,  the  merits  and  demerits  of 
that  system  cannot  be  ignored. 

DISAGREEMENT  AS  TO  COUNT. 

We  found  that  there  had  been  disagreement  between  at  least 
one  prisoner  and  the  private  employees  of  the  contractors  with 
reference  to  the  count.  While  one  error  was  acknowledged  by  an 
employee  of  the  contractors  we  do  not  call  attention  to  this  matter 
for  the  purpose  of  fixing  the  blame  as  to  this  particular  item,  but 
it  is  mentioned  merely  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  opportunities’ 
for  trouble. 

LETTERS  AND  DOPE. 

There  was  evidence  to  the  effect  that  some  of  the  employees  of  the 
contractors  co-operated  with  the  prisoners  in  passing  things  in  and 
out  of  the  prison.  While  our  evidence  is  such  as  not  to  warrant 
us  in  attempting  to  designate  the  particular  employees  of  the  con¬ 
tractors,  we  feel  certain  that  there  is  more  or  less  truth  in  the  testi¬ 
mony,  and  that  not  only  information  and  letters  are  conveyed  from 
prisoners  to  persons  on  the  outside,  kbut  that  at  least  some  drugs 
and  dope  received  by  prisoners  come  through  that  avenue.  That 
abundant  opportunities  exist  for  these  evils  there  can  be  no  ques¬ 
tion. 


24  — 


THE  CONTRACTOR  AND  PRISON  OFFICIALS. 

It  was  alleged  that  the  warden,  or  members  of  his  family,  had 
some  interest  in  the  contracts.  All  of  the  testimony  offered  goes 
to  show  that  this  statement  is  without  any  foundation  whatsoever. 
That  in  some  states,  prison  officials  of  penal  institutions  have  re¬ 
ceived  financial  benefit  from  the  contracts  is  certain,  and  that  the 
opportunity  exists  in  any  event  is  beyond  question.  There  is  no 
penal  institution  in  which  the  contract  labor  system  exists  where 
prisoners  do  not  claim  that  the  officers  of  the  institution  are  con¬ 
trolled  by  the  contractors,  from  the  superintendent,  the  warden, 
the  prison  physician  down  to  the  most  subordinate  officer.  That 
many  statements  are  made  by  prisoners  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
creating  prejudice  is  undoubtedly  true,  but  that  opportunity  exists 
for  an  improper  influence  cannot  be  denied.  Inasmuch  as  the 
contractor  is  in  the  business  for  profit  and  not  for  philanthropy, 
there  is  a  great  temptation  on  the  part  of  the  contractors  to  keep 
on  harmonious  relations  with  the  prison  authorities.  This  may  be 
done  in  various  ways  without  transgressing  any  law,  and  perhaps 
without  the  contractors  realizing  that  they  are  offending  against 
anything  in  the  moral  code.  If,  however,  the  contractor  is  the  kind 
of  a  man  that  believes  in  getting  results  and  that  the  end  justifies 
the  means,  there  is  unlimited  opportunity  for  corruption. 

CLAIM  OF  PRISONERS. 

One  prisoner  writes  the  attorney  general:  “I  am  having  serious 

trouble  with  contract  foreman  of  Shop - who  continually  swears 

at  and  nags  me,  and  who  in  order  to  satisfy  his  own  personal 
grievances  causes  untold  suffering.”  He  also  states:  “The  guard’s 
position  is  at  stake  if  he  speaks  one  word  in  a  prisoner’s  behalf, 
for  the  contract  rules  and  is  the  power  behind  the  throne.” 

The  prisoner  proceeds  to  say  that  though  he  was  unable  to  work 
he  was  kept  on  the  contract  because  they  were  short  of  men  at 
that  shop. 

Another  letter  was  received  by  the  attorney  general  from  an  en¬ 
tirely  different  character  of  man  in  which  he  states:  “I  have  been 
deprived  of  my  liberty  and  robbed  of  my  labor  for  years.  My 
health  and  nervous  system  is  broken  down.  I  am  not  a  criminal 
and  feel  that  I  am  held  a  slave  to  the  contract  system.” 

As  to  whether  any  one  is  compelled  to  work  on  the  contract 
when  he  is  physically  unable  to  work,  this  committee  has  no  evi- 


—  25  — 


dence  sufficient  to  form  or  express  an  opinion;  in  other  words, 
we  have  not  sufficient  corroboration  of  prisoners’  testimony  to 
satisfy  us  of  the  truth  of  the  charges.  It  is  sufficient  that  under 
such  a  system  the  opportunities  are  there  and  that  the  charges  are 
constantly  being  made. 

CONTRACTS  AND  PAROL. 

The  charges  made  that  prisoners  are  not  paroled  because  of  the 
fact  that  they  are  strong,  efficient  workers  and  therefore  valuable 
to  the  contractors  are  utterly  without  support  so  far  as  the  evi¬ 
dence  discloses.  On  the  contrary,  the  records  show  that  the  num¬ 
ber  of  paroles  given  to  men  who  are  laboring  under  the  contract 
system  is  in  a  greater  ratio  than  the  men  not  so  engaged. 

This  is  easily  accounted  for  because  it  is  well  known  that  a  man 
who  is  engaged  at  productive  labor,  even  if  he  is  engaged  under 
a  bad  form  of  slavery,  will  conduct  himself  much  better  than  a 
man  who  is  spending  a  part  or  all  of  his  time  in  idleness. 

The  statement  then  of  prisoners  that  the  board  of  parol  is  in 
any  way  influenced  by  the  contractors  is  wholly  unwarranted  and 
is  made  either  with  a  reckless  disregard  for  the  truth,  or  for  the 
purpose  of  creating  prejudice.  The  fact  remains  that  the  charges 
are  frequently  made,  and  they  will  continue  to  be  made  just  so 
long  as  the  contract  system  is  in  vogue,  and  this  would  be  true 
if  the  personnel  of  the  parole  board  should  change  every  month. 

“WHENEVER  THE  CONTRACTOR  COMES  IN,  THE  WARDEN  GOES 

OUT.” 

The  saying  that  “  Whenever  the  contractor  comes  in,  the  warden 
goes  out”  contains  a  sufficient  amount  of  truth  to  prevent  it  ever 
becoming  obsolete  so  long  as  the  contract  system  is  in  use.  As 
before  stated,  the  contractor  is  in  the  business  for  what  profit  he 
can  get  out  of  it.  He  does  not  pretend  to  be  an  educator,  a  re¬ 
former  or  philanthropist.  He  cannot  be  blamed  if  he  makes  long 
term  contracts  for  the  prisoners’  labor  at  from  twenty-five  to 
eighty  cents  a  day — at  the  penitentiary  at  Fort  Madison  twenty- 
five  and  sixty  cents  per  day — nor  can  he  be  blamed  if  he  receives 
as  much  control  over  the  prisoners  as  possible  ;  that  is  his  end  of 
the  bargain. 


—  26 


RESPONSIBILITY  OF  THE  STATE. 

The  blame  should  primarily  be  lodged  against  the  state.  It  is 
fundamentally  wrong  for  a  state  to  exploit  prisoners  for  profit. 
It  is  not  only  wrong  but  foolish  when  this  exploitation  is  dele¬ 
gated  to  some  private  corporation.  If  any  one  is  to  receive  a  profit 
it  should  be  the  state.  If  a  profit  can  be  made  by  a  corporation 
it  can  be  made  by  the  state  under  efficient  management.  When 
the  state  assumes  control  over  an  individual  it  is  responsible  for 
his  physical  well-being  and  his  social  and  moral  welfare,  but  no 
one  pretends  that  a  contractor  is  concerned  in  any  way  with  the 
social,  moral  or  physical  welfare  of  the  prisoner.  With  the  state, 
the  primary  object  in  view  should  be  the  protection  of  society  and 
the  reformation  of  the  individual;  with  the  contractor  the  primary 
object  is  and  always  will  be  the  maximum  amount  of  dividends, 
and  it  is  no  answer  to  say  that  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the 
federal  constitution  of  the  United  States,  in  which  it  is  provided 
that  “  Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  pun¬ 
ishment  for  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  con¬ 
victed,  shall  exist  within  the  United  States,  or  any  place  subject 
to  their  jurisdiction7’  at  least  indirectly  recognizes  that  each  state 
may  .impose  a  form  of  slavery  upon  its  convicts. 

THE  WORST  FORM  OF  SLAVERY. 

The  contract  system  is  the  ivorst  form  of  slavery  because  it  is 
a  delegated  form  of  slavery.  Authority  and  responsibility  should 
go  hand  in  hand  but  this  cannot  be  with  the  contract  system. 

The  Outlook,  May  4,  1912,  editorially  in  describing  the  difference 
between  the  contract  labor  system  and  slavery  as  it  formerly  existed, 
states:  “There  is,  however,  this  important  difference  between  the 
contractor’s  relation  to  the  convict  and  that  of  a  master  to  his 
servant.  The  master  owns  his  slave  and  hence  has  a  selfish  interest 
in  his  life,  health  and  efficiency.  The  contractor  does  not  own  the 
convict,  and  hence  has  no  selfish  interest  in  his  physical  well-being. 
If  the  convict  dies,  it  costs  the  contractor  nothing,  and  there  are 
plenty  more  to  take  his  place.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  a  leading 
prison  contractor  once  exclaimed,  -‘This  beats  having  slaves  all 
hollow!7  Yes,  this  modern  survival  of  slavery  has  a  great  ad¬ 
vantage,  from  the  dollars  and  cents  point  of  view,  over  the  old 
form.77 


27  — 


In  the  objections  thus  far  made  no  reference  lias  been  made 
to  the  evil  effects  of  the  contract  system  upon  free  labor  or  manu¬ 
facturers  not  employing  convict  labor.  The  objections  have  dealt 
entirely  with  observations  which  came  directly  to  the  attention 
of  the  committee  uninvited  and  unsolicited,  and  the  committee 
is  of  the  opinion  that  without  regard  to  the  effect  upon  free  labor 
and  the  effect  upon  the  manufacturer  who  does  not  employ  contract 
labor,  the  system  is  fundamentally  wrong  and  should  be  abandoned 
as  soon  as  the  contracts  expire. 

Free  labor  has  no  right  to  object  to  the  competition  of  convict 
labor.  A  person  does  not  cease  to  be  a  human  being  because  he 
is  transferred  from  the  outside  world  to  a  place  inside  the  prison 
walls.  His  sentence  may  be  short  or  long.  If  he  is  a  man  with  a 
family,  or  some  one  dependent  upon  him,  the  necessity  of  their 
existence  is  just  as  great  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other.  The 
man  himself,  if  his  sentence  is  short,  will  soon  be  released  and  will 
probably  enter  the  ranks  of  the  toilers,  or  what  is  worse  for  both 
labor  and  capital,  attempt  to  secure  a  livelihood  by  dishonest 
means.-  We  insist  then  that  a  man  does  not  lose  his  rights  as  a 
citizen,  and  especially  as  a  human  being,  except  such  rights  as  are 
necessary  to  the  protection  of  society,  because  of  the  fact  that  he  is 
convicted  of  a  crime. 

CONTRACT  LABOR  UNFAIR  COMPETITION. 

Our  objection  then  to  the  contract  system  in  so  far  as  it  affects 
free  labor  is  not  because  there  is  competition  with  free  labor,  but 
because  there  is  unfair  competition.  Enlightened,  fair-minded 
men  of  whatever  calling  or  profession  have  commenced  to  realize 
that  every  man  is  entitled  to  the  opportunity  to  work  and  to  re¬ 
ceive  therefor  a  living  wage.  It  goes  without  saying  that  if  the 
labor  of  the  inmates  of  penal  and  reformatory  institutions  is  con¬ 
tracted  for  at  a  rate  of  from  twenty-five  to  eighty  cents  per  day; 
that  if  a  part  of  that  labor  consists  of  minors  and  defectives,  who 
should  be  spending  at  least  a  part  of  the  day  in  school ;  that  if  the 
hours  of  labor  are  unduly  long,  and  that  in  addition  thereto  the  con¬ 
tractors  are  given  a  further  subsidy  by  the  state  furnishing  the 
grounds,  buildings,  machinery,  heat  and  light  that  the  state  is  not 
only  depriving  free  labor  of  a  living  wage,  but  even  the  right  to  labor. 
The  state  cannot  afford  to  continue  to  be  the  chief  offender  agdinst 
a  fundamental  principle  ivhicli  so  vitally  affects  the  welfare  of 
our  present  civilization. 


—  28  — 


Dr.  Whitin  in  his  book  entitled  “Penal  Servitude”  points  out 
very  clearly  that  a  subsidized  institution  employing  cheap  convict 
labor  may  have  a  very  great  effect  upon  both  the  price  of  labor  and 
the  price  of  the  commodity  even  though  the  output  of  the  com¬ 
modity  in  question  is  relatively  small. 

SUMMARY  OF  OBJECTIONS. 

Briefly  summarized,  the  objection  then  to  contract  labor  is  that 
it  is  not  only  a  form  of  slavery  but  an  unjustifiable  form  of  slavery 
because  it  is  a  delegated  form  in  which  responsibility  and  author¬ 
ity  are  divorced.  It  is  the  exploitation  of  the  helpless  convict,  not 
for  the  profit  of  the  state,  but  for  the  profit  of  a  private  corpora¬ 
tion.  It  is  the  wrongful  surrender  and  abandonment  of  the  con¬ 
trol  and  jurisdiction  over  the  person  of  a  prisoner  either  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree.  It  furnishes  opportunity  for  convicts  to 
communicate  with  the  outside  world  in  violation  of  the  rules  of  the 
institution  and  to  receive  opium,  morphine,  cocaine  and  other  forms 
of  dope  if  the  employees  of  the  contractors  are  subject  to  improper 
influence,  or  even  unduly  sympathetic.  It  furnishes  opportunity 
for  corruption  between  the  contractors  and  prison  officials  and  offi¬ 
cers  of  the  law  and  subjects  prison  officials  to  criticism  regardless 
of  whether  there  is  any  foundation  in  fact  for  the  charges,  sit 
tends  to  destroy  discipline,  it  impairs  reformation  and  destroys 
hope  on  the  part  of  the  prisoner;  it  is  injurious  to  the  manufacturer 
employing  free  labor;  it  is  unfair  competition  to  free  labor  be¬ 
cause  it  tends  to  destroy  the  living  wage,  and  lessens  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  labor,  and  on  the  whole  it  is  economically  unsound. 

STATE  USE  SYSTEM  SUBSTITUTED  FOR  CONTRACT  LABOR  AT 
THE  REFORMATORY  AT  MANSFIELD. 

\  )  #  . 

The  contract  labor  system  prevailed  in  all  of  the  institutions  of 
Ohio  until  a  comparatively  short  time  ago.  Dr.  Leonard  of  Mans¬ 
field  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  system  because  of  the  evils  which 
he  constantly  observed  from  time  to  time  in  connection  with  the 
system,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  contractors  he  had 
to  deal  with  were  men  of  more  than  ordinary  fairness  and  hon¬ 
esty.  Through  his  influence  and  the  influence  of  organized  labor 
and  other  public  spirited  citizens,  the  state  of  Ohio  abandoned 
the  contract  system,  and  adopted  the  state  use  system. 


29 


Dr.  Leonard  in  a  conversation  with  the  attorney  general  of  this 
state  a  short  time  ago  said  that  the  results  had  more  than  ex¬ 
ceeded  his  expectations.  From  every  standpoint  he  said  that  a 
substantial  gain  had  been  made  by  going  from  the  contract  system 
to  the  state  use  system.  He  was  told  that  he  could  not  manufacture 
shoes  to  advantage  in  the  institution,  and  many  other  articles,  but 
under  a  wise  supervision  he  has  been  enabled  to  do  successfully 
everything  which  he  has  attempted  to  do.  Some  of  the  furniture 
for  use  at  the  state  capitol  was  manufactured  by  the  convicts  and 
the  demand  for  the  products  has  far  exceeded  the  output. 

The  experience  of  Ohio  is  not  exceptional  but  is  used  merely  as 
typical  of  what  may  he  done  and  what  is  being  done  by  a  large 
number  of  states  which  have  abandoned  the  contract  system. 

THE  EVILS  OF  SOLITARY  CONFINEMENT  AND  EN¬ 
FORCED  IDLENESS. 

In  some  of  the  states,  however,  we  found  large  bodies  of  men  in 
enforced  idleness  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  state  in  question 
had  abolished  the  contract  system,  and  had  substituted  no  form 
of  labor  in  its  place.  While  we  are  unanimous  in  saying  that  from 
every  standpoint  the  contract  system  should  be  abandoned  we  freely 
concede  that  contract  labor  is  preferable  to  no  labor.  Whatever 
the  evils  may  be  in  connection  with  the  contract  system,  they  are 
humane  so  far  as  the  prisoners  are  concerned  in  comparison  with 
enforced  idleness. 

The  God  given  right  to  labor  should  not  be  denied  permanently 
or  for  any  considerable  period  to  any  human  being.  Numberless 
instances  could  be  given  of  the  evil  effects  of  enforced  idleness  and 
of  solitary  confinement. 

The  “Pennsylvania  Plan”  received  an  experiment  in  New  York 
which  convinced  the  most  doubtful  of  its  evil  effects.  The  result 
is  reported  by  Frederick  G.  Pettigrove,  Chairman  of  the  Massa¬ 
chusetts  Prison  Commission,  in  chapter  3  of  the  Russell  Sage  Found¬ 
ation  Series  of  “Penal  and  Reformatory  Institutions.”  On  page 
33  Mr.  Pettigrove  says: 

“Under  an  act  of  1821,  following  an.  experiment  in  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  New  York  adopted  a  scheme  of  grading  which  proposed  three 
classes.  The  most  dangerous  and  impenitent  composed  the  first 
class,  which  wras  doomed  to  constant  confinement  in  solitary  cells 
with  no  companion  but  their  own  thoughts  and,  if  the  keeper  saw 


—  30  — 


» 

fit,  a  Bible.  The  second  class,  to  be  the  less  incorrigible,  should 
alternate  between  solitary  confinement  and  labor  as  a  recreation. 
The  third,  being  the  most  hopeful,  were  to  work  in  association  by 
day  and  to  be  in  seclusion  by  night.  The  first  class  was  separated 
from  the  others  on  Christmas,  1821,  and  consisted  of  eighty-three 
of  the  most  hardened  prisoners  who  were  committed  to  silence  and 
solitude.  In  less  than  a  year  five  of  the  eighty-three  had  died,  one 
became  an  idiot,  another  when  his  door  was  opened  dashed  him¬ 
self  from  the  gallery,  and  the  rest  with  haggard  looks  and  despair¬ 
ing  voices  begged  to  be  set  to  work 

A  prison  warden  of  one  of  the  eastern  institutions  who  has  held 
his  present  position  for  over  twenty-five  years  told  the  attorney 
general  of  this  state  that  he  could  distinguish  a  prisoner  who  had 
formerly  served  time  in  the  Pennsylvania  penitentiary  by  the  looks 
and  actions  of  the  prisoner  without  any  other  evidence.  This  ex¬ 
perience,  however,  is  not  confined  to  our  own  country. 

Mr.  Baillie-Cochrane  says:  “The  officers  at  the  Dartmoor  prison 
inform  me  that  the  prisoners  who  arrive  there  even  after  one  year ’s 
confinement  at  Pentonville,  may  be  distinguished  from  the  others 
by  their  miserable  downcast  look.  In  most  instances  the  brain  is 
affected,  and  they  are  unable  to  give  satisfactory  replies  to  the 
simplest  questions.  ” 

HERBERT  SPENCER  CONDEMNS  THE  SOLITARY  SYSTEM. 

The  evils  of  solitary  confinement  and  enforced  idleness  as  de¬ 
scribed  by  prison  officials  are  clearly  recognized  by  the  greatest 
psychologists  and  philosophers.  Herbert  Spencer  in  his  unusually 
able  and  prophetic  essay  on  “Prison  Ethics’’  after  condemning  the 
solitary  system,  said: 

“Our  own  objection  to  such  methods,  however,  has  always  been, 
that  their  effect  on  the  moral  nature  is  the  very  reverse  of  that 
required.  Crime  is  anti-social — is  prompted  by  self -regarding  feel¬ 
ings,  and  checked  by  social  feelings.  The  natural  prompter  of  right 
conduct  to  others,  and  the  natural  opponent  of  misconduct  to  others, 
is  sympathy;  for  out  of  sympathy  grow  both  the  kindly  emotions, 
and  that  sentiment  of  justice  which  restrains  us  from  aggressions. 
Well,  this  sympathy,  which  makes  society  possible,  is  cultivated 
by  social  intercourse.  By  habitual  participation  in  the  pleasures 
of  others,  the  faculty  is  strengthened;  and  whatever  prevents  this 
participation,  weakens  it — an  effect  commonly  illustrated  in  the 


—  31  — 


selfishness  of  old  bachelors.  Hence,  therefore,  we  contend  that 
shutting  up  prisoners  within  themselves,  or  forbidding  all  inter¬ 
change  of  feeling,  inevitably  deadens  such  sympathies  as  they  have ; 
and  so  tends  rather  to  diminish  than  to  increase  the  moral  check 
to  transgression.  This  a  priori  conviction,  which  we  have  long  en¬ 
tertained,  we  now  find  confirmed  by  facts.  Captain  Maconcochie 
states,  as  a  result  of  observation,  that  a  long  course  of  separation 
so  fosters  the  self-regarding  desires,  and  so  weakens  the  sympathies, 
as  to  make  even  well-disposed  men  very  unfit  to  bear  the  little 
trials  of  domestic  life  on  their  return  to  their  homes.  Thus  there 
is  good  reason  to  think  that,  while  silence  and  solitude  may  coiv 
the  spirit  or  undermine  the  energies,  it  cannot  produce  true  refor¬ 
mation.” 

OPINION  OF  PROF.  WILLIAM  JAMES. 

This  is  precisely  in  accordance  with  the  conclusions  of  the  late 
Prof.  William  James  of  Harvard  set  forth  in  his  psychology  on 
page  179  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  effect  of  depriving  a  human 
being  of  his  social  relation  with  his  fellow  man,  and  says: 

“No  more  fiendish  punishment  could  be  devised,  were  such  a 
thing  physically  possible,  than  that  one  should  be  turned  loose 
in  society  and  remain  absolutely  unnoticed  by  all  the  members 
thereof.  If  no  one  turned  round  when  we  entered,  answered  when 
we  spoke,  or  minded  what  we  did,  but  if  every  person  we  met  ‘cut 
us  dead,’  and  acted  as  if  we  were  non-existing  things,  a  kind  of 
rage  and  impotent  despair  would  ere  long  well  up  in  us,  from  which 
the  cruellest  bodily  tortures  would  be  relief ;  for  these  would  make 
us  feel  that,  however  bad  might  be  our  plight,  we  had  not  sunk 
to  such  a  depth  as  to  be  unworthy  of  attention  at  all.” 

ENFORCED  IDLENESS  A  PART  OF  OUR  PENAL  SYSTEM. 

Emphasis  has  been  placed  upon  the  evil  effect  of  both  the  soli¬ 
tary  confinement  and  enforced  idleness  because  it  even  now  forms 
so  large  a  part  of  our  penal  system.  Especially  is  this  true  with 
the  punishment  meted  out  to  misdemeanants.  The  state  in  elim¬ 
inating  one  evil  should  not  cause  a  still  greater  evil.  There  is  con¬ 
clusive  evidence,  however,  that  a  substitute  or  substitutes  for  con¬ 
tract  labor  can  be  found  which  is  superior  from  every  view  point 
to  that  of  contract  labor.  In  other  words,  we  believe'  that  con¬ 
tract  labor  can  be  entirely  abolished  from  our  penal  institutions 


—  32  — 


and  that  our  institutions  can  be  so  managed  that  every  person  con¬ 
fined  may  be  profitably  employed  at  productive  labor  during  each 
working  day,  and  we  believe  there  is  something  radically  wrong 
in  any  institution  where  any  considerable  number  of  able  bodied 
men  are  in  idleness  or  where  any  individual  capable  of  labor  is 
kept  in  idleness  for  any  considerable  period  of  time. 

ENFORCED  IDLENESS  ECONOMIC  IDIOCY. 

Enforced  idleness  is  not  only  a  crime  against  the  prisoner  and 
his  family,  but  it  is  economic  idiocy,  and  this  is  true  whether  the 
idleness  is  a  part  of  our  system  of  punishment  of  felons  or  mis¬ 
demeanants;  in  other  words,  whether  it  is  a  part  of  the  peniten¬ 
tiary  system  or  a  part  of  the  jail  system,  except  where  the  jail  is 
used  merely  as  a  place  of  detention.  Enforced  idleness,  however, 
in  connection  with  the  jail  system  will  be  separately  discussed 
hereafter. 

SUBSTITUTES  FOR  CONTRACT  LABOR. 

The  substitutes  for  contract  labor  are  state  account,  state  use, 
public  works  and  prison  farms  or  penal  colonies,  the  penal  farm 
often  combining  elements  in  both  the  state  account  and  state  use 
system.  Each  of  these  has  its  enthusiastic  advocates,  while  some 
states  have  adopted  to  some  extent  all  three  of  the  systems.  Per¬ 
haps  the  greatest  and  most  enthusiastic  advocate  of  the  state  ac¬ 
count  system  is  Warden  Wolfer  of  the  Minnesota  penitentiary 
at  Stillwater. 

WARDEN  WOLFER  ON  STATE  ACCOUNT  SYSTEM. 

Mr.  Wolfer  states  that  prison  labor  must  be  productive.  There 
should  be  no  private  interest  in  the  product  of  prison  labor.  The 
prisoner  should  share  in  his  earning  power  and  be  made  to  feel 
that  he  is  not  a  pauper  while  in  prison  and  the  institution  should 
be  self-supporting;  that  to  this  end  the  industries  should  be  se¬ 
lected  with  a  view  of  reaching  the  following  results  as  near  as 
possible : 

(a)  To  make  competition  as  nearly  equal  as  possible; 

(b)  Such  as  will  give  mechanical  employment  to  the  inmate 
and  will  best  lit  him  to  go  out  and  earn  an  honest  living  upon  his 
release ; 


—  33  — 


(c)  Such  industries  as  can  and  will  make  the  institution  self- 
supporting. 

After  condemning  the  contract  system  as  violative  of  the  prin¬ 
ciples  enunciated,  his  objection  to  the  state  use  system  is  that  it 
requires  too  many  industries  in  a  single  institution  to  keep  the  in¬ 
mates  steadily  employed,  and  hence  danger  of  financial  loss.  lie 
states  that  the  state  use  system  minimizes  competition  only  to  the 
extent  that  it  minimizes  productiveness  and  that  there  is  compe¬ 
tition  with  free  labor  whether  it  is  manufactured  for  use  in  other 
institutions  or  whether  it  is  sold  in  the  open  market.  He  states 
that  as  labor  is  one  of  the  most,  if  not  the  most,  active  agent  in  the 
reformation  of  the  criminal,  there  must  be  a  well  organized  in¬ 
dustry  with  a  high  degree  of  efficiency  so  that  the  convict  may 
appreciate  the  value  of  labor  and  be  allowed  a  proportionate  share 
in  his  increased  earning  power,  and  he  states  as  his  opinion  that 
the  state  account  system  where  but  few  industries  are  required 
most  completely  meets  the  requirements.  He  says : 

“The  industries  should  be  such  as  are  not  represented  within  the 
state  by  free  labor,  if  possible,  as  this  will  provide  a  happy  solu¬ 
tion  of  the  competitive  feature  of  prison  labor.  The  products 
should  be  such  as  are  used  by  a  large  portion  of  the  population, 
in  order  that  the  benefits  may  be  as  widely  and  equitably  distri¬ 
buted  as  possible.” 

He  says  that : 

“The  state  account  system  has  been  very  successful  in  Minne¬ 
sota,  where  a  binder  twine  plant  has  been  in  operation  for  nearly 
twenty  years  and  a  farm  machinery  plant  is  now  in  its  fourth 
year  of  actual  operation.” 

He  quotes  the  United  States  commissioner  of  labor  to  the  effect 
that  there  has  been  a  saving  to  the  farmers  of  three  cents  a  pound 
on  binder  twine,  which  saving  in  view  of  the  amount  manufactured 
and  sold  to  the  farmers  of  his  state  amounts  to  $5,081,190.  (See 
the  Review  for  February,  1912,  page  3.) 

In  his  Sixteenth  Biennial  Report  for  1909  and  1910,  page  3,  in 
referring  to  the  twine  plant,  he  states : 

“Our  annual  manufacturing  capacity  is  now  approximately 
eighteen  million  pounds.  Our  mills  were  operated  at  full  capacity 
as  usual  during  the  past  two  years.  I  hope  it  will  not  be  considered 
3 


—  34 


out  of  place  here  to  call  the  attention  of  the  state  hoard  of  control 
to  the  fact  that  our  financial  statements  show  that  we  could  now 
pay  back  into  the  state  treasury  all  the  money  it  ever  appropriated 
for  the  purchase  of  twine  machinery  and  for  a  revolving  fund  to 
carry  on  the  business,  and  still  have  left  a  net  clear  profit  of 
$1,570,992.” 

He  also  calls  attention  to  the  farm  machinery  plant  and  states 
that  “After  taking  a  careful,  conservative  inventory  of  our  assets, 
we  show  under  the  head  of  profit  and  loss,  a  developing  expense  of 
$42,057.42.” 

STATE  ACCOUNT  IN  ILLINOIS  AND  MICHIGAN. 

The  state  account  system  is  followed  to  a  large  extent  at  Joliet, 
Illinois,  and  at  the  House  of  Correction  at  Detroit,  Michigan.  If 
the  state  manufactures  only  such  articles  as  are  sold  or  manu¬ 
factured  by  trusts,  and  if.  a  standardization  of  prices  is  fixed,  and 
the  state  does  not  deviate  from  these  prices,  the  evil  influence  of 
the  competition  of  prison  labor  with  free  labor  may  be  reduced 
to  a  comparative  minimum. 

It  is  also  true,  however,  that  if  the  plan  was  generally  adopted 
of  manufacturing  goods  to  be  sold  upon  the  open  market,  it  would 
be  exceedingly  difficult  to  so  control  the  manner  of  distribution  and 
price  of  the  goods  as  not  to  injure  free  labor  and  the  manufacturer 
employing  free  labor.  For  that  reason  the  tendency  of  the  times 
is  to  adopt  the  state  use  system.  Whatever  failures  have  been 
made  with  reference  to  the  state  use  system  are  due  to  the  incom¬ 
pleteness  of  the  law  governing  the  same,  or  the  inefficiency  of  the 
management,  rather  than  the  system  itself. 

STATE  USE  SYSTEM. 

Dr.  Leonard,  of  Mansfield,  Ohio,  has  demonstrated  beyond  per- 
adventure  the  success  of  the  state  use  system.  He  has  been  enabled 
to  keep  all  of  the  inmates  employed  that  it  is  desirable  to  employ 
in  industrial  pursuits,  rather  than  outdoor  labor  at  various  forms 
of  productive  labor.  He  has  demonstrated  that  prison  labor  can 
make  a  high  grade  article;  indeed,  his  work  has  been  so  successful 
that  the  demand  for  the  goods  by  the  state  far  exceeds  his  pos¬ 
sibility  of  output.  As  an  instance  of  some  of  the  high  grade  work, 
some  of  the  furniture  used  at  the  Capitol  was  manufactured  at 
Mansfield. 


85 


New  York  was  one  of  the  pioneers  to  adopt  the  state  use  sys¬ 
tem  and  undoubtedly  on  the  whole  the  system  has  proved  a  success. 

The  experience  in  the  manufacturing  business  of  Superintend¬ 
ent  McDonell  at  the  House  of  Correction,  Detroit,  Michigan,  with 
his  short  term  prisoners,  the  experience-  of  Warden  Wolfer  at  the 
Minnesota  penitentiary  at  Stillwater,  and  Dr.  Leonard  at  the  Re¬ 
formatory  at  Mansfield,  demonstrates  beyond  doubt  that  whatever 
may  be  done  by  private  corporations  and  individuals  under  the 
contract  system  may  be  done  equally  as  well  or  better  by  the  state, 
and  this  efficiency  is  possible  with  short  term  prisoners  as  well  as 
long  term  prisoners. 

For  a  more  complete  and  exhaustive  discussion  of  the  relative 
merits  between  the  state  use  and  the  state  account  system,  and  the 
effect  upon  free  labor  and  free  manufactures,  see  the  recent  work 
of  Dr.  E.  Stagg  Whitin  entitled  “Penal  Servitude.” 

PUBLIC  WORKS. 

Because  of  the  advantages  of  open  air  and  sunshine  upon  the 
prisoner’s  health,  much  advocacy  has  been  recently  made  concern¬ 
ing  the  public  works  system  or  the  employment  of  prisoners  upon 
public  roads  and  highways  and  other  public  enterprises. 

PRISON  LABOR  UPON  HIGHWAYS. 

The  results  in  Oregon  and  Colorado  are  constantly  being  given 
as  a  reason  why  prisoners'  should  be  employed  in  the  construction 
and  improvement  of  highways.  Every  one  who  has  given  careful 
study  to  this  question  knows  that  generalizations  from  a  particu¬ 
lar  state  cannot  be  made  writh  reference  to  other  states.  What 
might  be  successfully  done  in  a  western  mountainous  state  where 
there  are  large  stretches  of  country  with  but  slight  population 
might  be  entirely  impracticable  and  inadvisable  in  a  state  of  dense 
population  where  there  wTas  much  traffic  upon  all  of  the  highways 
and  where  children  would  be  going  to  and  from  school. 

NO  NEW  EXPERIMENT. 

Warden  Cleghorn  of  the  penitentiary  at  Colorado  in  one  of  his 
reports  states  that:  “The  establishment  of  this  camp  (prison  camp) 
is  unique  in  the  history  of  penal  and  reformatory  institutions  and 
marks  the  dawn  of  a  new  era  in  criminal  reform,”  and  a  number 


36  — 


of  uninformed  people  seem  to  share  that  belief.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
prison  labor  upon  the  highways  was  abandoned  in  some  of  the 
eastern  states  at  an  early  day  because  of  the  strong  public  senti¬ 
ment  against  it.  The  effect  of  seeing  a  large  number  of  men  dressed 
in  striped  or  pari-colored  uniforms  under  the  control  of  armed 
guards  was  considered  demoralizing  upon  free  citizens  and  espe¬ 
cially  the  youth  who  were  in  close  proximity  to  the  work,  and  the 
humiliation  caused  to  the  prisoner  by  being  exhibited  upon  the 
public  highway  in  a  striped  uniform  conscious  that  he  was  compelled 
to  work  at  the  point  of  a  gun  was  degrading  to  his  own  character 
and  caused  him  to  lose  what  self-respect  he  might  have  retained 
after  his  conviction,  and  to  become  further  removed  from  the  whole¬ 
some  effect  of  public  sentiment;  and  the  suggestion  of  Simon  E. 
Baldwin  in  his  report  to  the  Prison  Congress  that  by  permission  a 
convict  might  wear  a  domino  would  increase  rather  than  lessen 
the  objection. 


PRACTICAL  OBJECTIONS. 

Many  of  these  objectionable  features  do  not  now  obtain  as  the 
striped  uniform  has  been  abandoned  except  as  a  matter  of  pun¬ 
ishment  for  third  grade  prisoners,  but  the  committee  is  of  the 
opinion  that  it  would  neither  he  advisable  nor  profitable  to  em¬ 
ploy  the  major  or  even  a  considerable,  part  of  the  prisoners  in 
our  penal  institutions  upon  highways.  The  evil  effect  upon  the 
public  and  especially  the  youth  in  witnessing  a  body  of  convicts 
under  armed  guards;  the  access  which  they  would  have  for  com¬ 
munication  with  the  outside  world;  the  opportunity  for  receiving 
intoxicating  liquor,  drugs  and  dope ;  and  the  cost  of  guards,  if 
prisoners  are  to  be  employed  indiscriminately,  would  make  it  both 
inadvisable  and  unprofitable. 

Wherever  the  prisoners  have  been  turned  over  to  county  author¬ 
ities  and  other  local  officials  for  work  upon  highways,  or  to  pri¬ 
vate  contractors,  abuses  have  grown  up  which  have  been  sufficient 
to  condemn  the  system  and  cause  its  abandonment.  This  committee 
therefore  believes  that  under  no  circumstances  should  prisoners  be 
transferred  to  the  jurisdiction  of  private  parties  or  local  public 
officials  for  employment  upon  the  highway  or  other  labor. 


—  37 


LIMITED  NUMBER  MAY  BE  EMPLOYED. 

The  committee  believes,  however,  that  if  the  state  amends  its  laws 
so  that  the  state  itself  gives  more  material  aid  to  the  various  coun¬ 
ties  in  the  state  in  the  matter  of  highway  construction  that  a  lim¬ 
ited  number  of  prisoners  carefully  selected  by  the  warden  could 
be  profitably  employed  upon  the  highways  of  the  state  under  state 
authority,  possibly  fifty  but  not  to  exceed  seventy-five.  These 
should  be  men  who  have  served  the  maximum  part  of  their  term 
and  who  have  shown  such  evidence  of  good  conduct  that  they  can 
be  placed  upon  the  honor  system;  they  should  be  men  who  have 
demonstrated  habits  of  industry  so  that  it  will  not  be  necessary  to 
resort  to  any  severe  forms  of  punishment,  and  what  would  further 
seem  to  be  both  a  humane  provision  and  one  which  would  tend  to 
insure  the  success  of  the  experiment  would  be  to  make  it  optional 
with  the  prisoner  as  to  whether  or  not  he  should  labor  upon  the 
highway.  This  optional  provision  is  given  to  the  prisoner  in  Prus¬ 
sia,  (see  the  Prussian  Penal  Code,  section  16)  and  open  air  work 
is  given  as  a  reward  to  prisoners  in  Italy  for  good  behavior  who 
have  served  a  maximum  part  of  their  sentence.  (See  the  Penal  Code 
of  Italy,  section  14.) 

SHOULD  WORK  UNDER  NORMAL  CONDITIONS. 

If  these  conditions  were  carried  out  there  is  no  reason  why  the 
men  employed  upon  the  highways  should  not  work  under  sub¬ 
stantially  normal  conditions.  They  should  be  permitted  to  dress 
in  ordinary  citizens  clothes;  they  should  receive  substantial  com¬ 
pensation  for  their  labor  less  the  cost  of  their  maintenance  and  be 
permitted,  as  before  stated,  to  live  substantially  the  normal  life, 
except  that  they  should  not  be  permitted  to  buy  or  receive  any  in¬ 
toxicating  liquors  or  narcotics,  nor  should  they  be  permitted  to 
spend  their  unemployed  time  in  association  with  free  citizens. 

THE  PENAL  FARM. 

Having  discussed  briefly  the  state  use  system  and  the  public 
works  or  use  of  prisoners  upon  the  public  highways,  there  yet  re¬ 
mains  for  consideration  as  a  substitute  for  contract  labor  the  em¬ 
ployment  of  prisoners  upon  a  state  farm.  As  previously  stated,  in 
the  work  done  in  Colorado  and  Oregon  in  referring  to  outside  la¬ 
bor  for  convicts  upon  highways,  there  is  nothing  unique  or  ex- 


—  38  — 


ceptional  about  outdoor  employment  of  prisoners,  although  one 
would  receive  a  contrary  impression  from  magazine  articles  re¬ 
ferring  to  the  work  done  at  these  institutions  and  to  the  employ¬ 
ment  of  prisoners  in  Switzerland  on  the  Witzwil  farm. 

After  an  exhaustive  investigation,  we  agree  entirely  with  the 
report  presented  to  the  International  Prison  Congress  by  Simon  E. 
Baldwin  in  which  he  says:  “If  we  consider  the  history  of  the  sys¬ 
tem  of  compulsory  labor  in  the  open  air,  it  is  seen  that  it  origin¬ 
ated  at  a  very  early  period  and  that  to  this  day  it  has  been  prac¬ 
ticed  constantly,  even  if  not  always  for  the  same  aim,  by  one  na¬ 
tion  or  another.”  (Page  65,  Outdoor  Labor  for  Convicts.) 

Notwithstanding,  however,  that  there  is  nothing  unique  or  ex¬ 
ceptional  about  the  employment  of  outdoor  jjrisoners,  and  that  out¬ 
door  labor  for  convicts  is  now  being  so  generally  adopted  as  to  be 
almost  commonplace,  it  is  true  that  a  very  large  percentage  of 
prisoners  are  still  confined  within  the  prison  walls,  and  that  the 
importance  of  outdoor  labor,  and  especially  the  peculiar  value  of 
agricultural  labor  for  convicts,  is  just  now  being  fully  appreciated. 

The  length  of  this  article  forbids  that  any  large  number  of  in¬ 
stances  be  given  relative  to  the  successful  operation  of  state  farms 
and  penal  colonies,  but  a  sufficient  number  of  instances  should  be 
cited  to  the  end  that  members  of  the  general  assembly  and  others 
who  have  not  had  the  time  to  investigate  the  matter  may  be  in¬ 
formed  as  to  what  is  and  can  be  done  in  this  regard. 

SMALL  PENAL  FARM  AT  FORT  MADISON. 

As  you  well  know  our  state  purchased  211  acres  of  land  at  ap¬ 
proximately  $77  per  acre  or  $16,000  and  the  same  has  now  been 
operated  two  years.  Warden  Sanders  states  that  by  conservative 
estimate  the  amount  realized  from  the  farm,  not  counting  the  value 
of  prison  labor,  is  equal  to  the  price  paid  for  the  land  or  $16,000. 
As  the  state  has  received  a  bona  fide  offer  of  $125  per  acre  for  the 
land  there  is  a  net  gain  in  this  investment  during  the  period  men¬ 
tioned,  not  counting  the  value  of  the  labor,  of  $10,000.  The  men 
who  have  been  employed  during  the  crop  season  on  the  farm  are 
not  capable  of  doing  heavy  manual  labor  or  work  in  the  shops. 
AVhile  the  showing  is  very  creditable  owing  to  conditions  under 
which  the  farm  has  been  operated,  its  possibilities  have  barely 
begun  to  be  realized.  It  does,  however,  furnish  evidence  of  what 
can  be  done  on  a  large  penal  farm  under  favorable  conditions  by 


-39- 


following  the  methods  of  scientific  farming-.  The  present  farm 
is  not  sufficiently  large  to  employ  more  than  a  very  small  part  of 
the  prisoners.  We  shall  offer  evidence  to  show  that  a  much  larger 
per  cent  of  the  prisoners  could  profitably  be  employed  upon  a  state 
farm. 


THE  LARGE  PENAL  FARM  OF  MISSISSIPPI. 

The  state  of  Mississippi  has  already  demonstrated  beyond  con¬ 
troversy  the  success  of  a  large  prison  farm  for  convicts  if  operated 
under  reasonably  favorable  conditions.  The  farm  has  consisted  of 
several  thousand  acres  and  it  was  so  successful  that  a  recent  ses¬ 
sion  of  the  General  Assembly  directed  the  board  of  trustees  to  pur¬ 
chase  two  thousand  acres  of  additional  land.  Pursuant  to  the 
authority  granted  the  two  thousand  acres  were  purchased  adjacent 
to  the  existing  state  farms  and  the  trustees  say  in  their  biennial 
report  under  date  of  June  30,  1911 : 

“We  are  pleased  to  report  that  the  greater  portion  of  this  newly 
purchased  land  is  now  under  cultivation  and  will  add  materially 
towards  increasing  the  crop  of  this  season.” 

THE  NET  PROFITS. 

This  report  shows  that  a  cash  profit  was  realized  on  the  state 
farms  of  over  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  ($500,000.00)  dur¬ 
ing  the  twenty-one  months  just  preceding  the  making  of  the  re¬ 
port.  The  trustees  say,  commencing  on  page  4  of  the  report : 

“As  Will  be  seen  from  the  secretary’s  report  and  the  summing  up 
of  the  various  tables,  the  farms  have  netted  the  state  the  handsome 
cash  profit  of  $519,159.74  during  the  past  twenty-one  months.  This 
is  a  most  gratifying  result,  considering  that  a  large  part  of  the 
Support  Fund  drawn  out  went  towards  permanent  improvements, 
such  as  buildings,  draining  and  redeeming  low  lands,  etc.,  all  of 
which  enhanced  the  value  of  the  state’s  property. 

CARE  OF  THE  INMATES. 

‘  ‘  While  endeavoring  to  run  the  system  so  it  will  be  not  only  self- 
sustaining,  but  a  source  of  revenue  to  the  state,  we  have  not  lost 
sight  of  the  fact  that  the  unfortunate  inmates  of  the  institution 
are  human  beings  and  should  be  given  proper  food,  clothing  and  hu¬ 
mane  treatment.  Their  health  and  comfort  has  been  carefully  look- 


—  40 


ed  after,  as  the  small  death  ratio,  less  than  2  1-2  per  cent,  will 
testify.  Plenty  of  warm  woolen  clothing  is  furnished  in  the  winter 
months,  and  a  sufficiency  of  lighter  garments  for  the  summer.  Each 
convict  has  a  bed  to  himself,  with  a  mattress  and  sufficient  number 
of  blankets.  They  are  required  to  take  a  nightly  shower  bath,  after 
which  a  clean  nightshirt  is  furnished  for  sleeping  purposes. 

“The  food  of  the  convicts  consists  of  bacon,  the  best  cured  side 
meat  that  can  be  bought  from  the  packing  houses,  corn  and  flour 
bread,  coffee,  rice,  vegetables  in  season,  butter  and  sweet  milk,  and 
an  abundance  of  the  best  Louisiana  cane-molasses  and  sorghum. 
Beef  are  killed  at  regular  intervals  and  served,  also  fresh  pork. 

RAISING  OF  COMMON  STOCK. 

“We  are  pleased  to  report  that  our  efforts  toward  raising  our 
own  working  stock  are  proving  successful.  As  previously  reported, 
we  purchased  forty  brood  mares,  twenty  for  Rankin  farm  and  twenty 
for  Oakley.  We  also  purchased  two  fine  jacks,  one  for  each  of 
the  above  mentioned  farms.  As  the  result  of  our  efforts,  we  have 
at  present  on  Rankin  farm  nine  mule  colts,  and  on  Oakley  eleven. 
All  of  the  mares  are  looking  well  and  in  good  condition,  and  in 
the  next  two  years  we  confidently  expect  quite  an  addition  to  the 
above  number  of  colts. 

HOG  INDUSTRY. 

“We  have  also  given  especial  attention  to  the  hog  industry,  hav¬ 
ing  purchased  two  car  loads  of  hog  fencing  and  distributing  it 
over  the  farms.  Several  registered  boars  and  sows  have  also  been 
added  to  each  farm.  At  the  beginning  of  this  board’s  administra¬ 
tion  the  number  of  head  of  hogs  amounted  to  1,233.  At  present 
the  total  number  of  head  amount  to  2,463,  an  increase  of  1,231 
head,  notwithstanding  the  large  drain  made  on  the  supply  for  fur¬ 
nishing  fresh  pork  to  the  men  and  curing  a  portion  for  the  sum¬ 
mer  months.  It  requires  a  considerable  amount  of  cured  meat  to 
supply  the  farms  the  year  around,  but  with  close  attention  to  this 
department,  and  the  superintendent  is  giving  such  close  attention, 
we  feel  sure  that  within  a  few  years  we  will  not  have  to  go  to  out¬ 
side  markets  for  but  a  small  portion  of  our  requirements. 


—  41 


CATTLE  INDUSTRY. 

“Especial  attention  is  also  being  given  to  the  cattle  industry. 
With  a  view  to  grading  up  our  stock,  we  purchased  several  reg¬ 
istered  Red  Poled  bulls,  also  one  registered  Hereford  bull.  At 
present  the  number  of  head  of  cattle  amounts  to  997,  an  increase 
of  346  head  during  the  administration  of  the  present  board.  This 
increase  is  also  very  gratifying,  as  the  board  passed  an  order  two 
years  ago  that  more  fresh  beef  should  be  furnished  the  men,  and  at 
shorter  intervals. 


RAISING  OF  GRAIN. 

‘  ‘  Two  years  ago  we  began  the  planting  of  wheat  and  found  that 
as  good  a  yield  could  be  had  from  our  delta  land  as  from  anywhere. 
Most  of  that  season ’s  yield  was  sold  to  the  farmers  for  seed.  A  por¬ 
tion  of  it,  however,  was  threshed,  and  made  an  excellent  article  of 
graham  flour.  We  doubled  the  crop  this  year  and,  while  the  dry 
weather  damaged  it  some,  we  are  sure  of  a  paying  yield  per  acre. 
We  recently  purchased  a  thresher  and  are  now  comtemplating  the 
purchase  of  a  small  mill  with  sufficient  capacity  to  supply  the  farms 
with  flour.” 


SUMMARY. 

The  report  further  shows  that  in  addition  to  the  raising  of  all 
kinds  of  live  stock,  both  common  and  registered,  the  raising  of 
wheat,  cotton,  peas,  corn,  oats,  hay,  potatoes,  tobacco,  the  raising 
of  cane  and  the  manufacture  of  molasses  are  also  important  in¬ 
dustries  of  the  institution. 

Lest  the  amount  of  the  profit  seems  to  be  so  large  as  to  be  in¬ 
credible,  we  again  direct  attention  to  the  secretary’s  report  on  page 
7,  which  says: 

“ As  iv ill  be  seen  from  the  cash  statement,  the  penitentiary 
farms  have  turned  into  the  treasury  during  the  past  twenty -one 
months  the  sum  of  $ 519,159.74 ,  over  and  above  the  amount  drawn 
out  for  support 

NUMBER  OF  FARMS  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  PRISONERS. 

It  should  be  noticed  that  this  unusual  profit  was  not  realized  from 
the  use  of  any  of  the  two  thousand  acres  recently  purchased  as 
no  crops  had  then  been  sold  from  the  newly  purchased  land.  The  re- 


—  42  — 


port  shows  that  there  were  1843  convicts  at  the  penitentiary, 
located  as  follows: 


Sunflower  farm . 

Belmont  farm  . 

Rankin  farm . 

Oakley  farm . 

Oakley  Walls  (women) 
Insane  asylum  . 


1,333 
.  .132 
148 
185 
40 


Total . 1,843 

PENAL  FARM  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

North  Carolina  is  another  excellent  example  of  successful  out¬ 
door  labor  for  prisoners.  In  a  letter  from  Warden  T.  P.  Sale  from 
Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  under  date  of  February  11,  1912,  he 
states : 


NET  EARNINGS  PRISON. 

‘‘The  report  will  show  the  net  earnings  of  the  prison  for  1909-10 
to  have  been  $213,000.  over  and  above  every  expense  with  an  aver¬ 
age  prison  population  of  800.  We  have  425  men  employed  on  a 
farm  owned  by  the  state.  The  operations  of  this  farm  have  been 
very  successful  and  pay  well.  The  crop  for  1911  was  1,600  hales 
of  cotton,  30,000  bushels  of  corn,  15,000  bushels  peanuts ;  and  hay, 
fodder,  etc.,  enough  to  feed  the  stock  on  the  place  for  two.  years. 

PENAL  FARM  THE  SOLUTION  OF  CONVICT  LABOR. 

'‘In  my  opinion  the  farm  is  the  solution  of  the  labor  proposition 
in  the  employment  of  convicts.  It  is  out  in  the  open,  gives  recrea¬ 
tion  and  the  work  is  varied.  You  can  always  find  something  to  do 
for  most  any  prisoner  on  the  farm  whether  he  be  weak  or  strong. 
The  farm  contains  7,000  acres,  is  divided  into  two  Gamps  or  stations 
and  each  is  well  equipped  with  dwellings  for  supervisors  and 
guards.  Good  cell  houses  and  splendid  hospitals.  We  have  a 
large  brick  plant  on  the  grounds,  but  it  is  not  being  operated  now. 
Of  course  when  we  operate  this  our  population  will  average  about 
two  hundred.  There  seems  to  be  nothing  that  would  especially 
distinguish  it  from  other  prison  management,  except  possibly  the 
farm  feature,  which  has  been  a  part  of  our  ivork  for  about  twenty 


43  — 


years.  However,  I  have  observed  recently  that  prison  management 
generally  are  turning  to  the  farm  the  employment  of  prisoners  and 
no  doubt  will  find  it  wholesome  occupation  and  profitable  to  pris¬ 
oner  as  well  as  to  management.” 

It  should  not  be  understood  that  the  net  profit  is  due  entirely  to 
the  farm.  In  North  Carolina  there  are  325  prisoners  engaged  in 
railroad  construction  under  contract,  the  prison  management  re¬ 
ceiving  $1.50  a  day  per  man,  retaining  control  over  the  prisoners 
and  paying  for  their  keep  and  guards. 

SUCCESS  OF  PENAL  FARM  IN  ARKANSAS. 

Governor  George  W.  Donaghey  of  Arkansas,  referring  to  the 
success  of  the  state  penal  farm  in  his  message  to  the  legislature  in 
1911,  said: 

“We  have  on  the  state  farm  2,700  acres  of  open  land.  AVhen 
we  took  charge  of  the  penitentiary  two  years  ago,  and  before  we 
could  make  a  move  to  earn  anything  for  its  maintenance,  we  found 
it  was  in  debt  in  the  sum  of  about  $130,000.  $99,000  was  appro¬ 

priated  by  the  legislature  out  of  the  general  revenue  fund  for  the 
payment  in  part  of  that  debt.  The  balance  remaining  unpaid  was 
left  to  the  board  to  work  out.  The  first  year,  1909,  we  bought  sup¬ 
plies  on  credit,  paying  what  our  creditors  chose  to  charge  us,  and 
we  not  only  paid  the  debt  to  which  we  fell  heir,  but  made  enough 
money  over  and  above  all  expenses  to  pay  $30,000  of  the  state’s  farm 
debt,  and  turned  back  into  the  general  revenue  fund  $50,000.  For 
the  past  year  we  will  do  equally  as  well  if  not  better.  The  greater 
part  of  this  money  was  earned  on  the  state’s  farm.” 

Governor  Donaghey  states  that  less  than  one-third  of  the  convicts 
were  used  upon  the  state  farm. 

PROFITS  OF  PENAL  FARM  IN  LOUISIANA. 

The  state  of  Louisiana  has  purchased  for  its  penal  institutions 
fifteen  thousand  acres  of  land  at  a  cost  of  $409,000,  there  being 
six  separate  penal  farms  ranging  from  400  to  800  acres  in  each 
farm.  The  recent  report  for  the  calendar  year  ending  1911  shows 
that  they  have  constructed  on  one  of  the  farms  a  sugar  refinery 
at  a  cost  of  nearly  $420,000  “all  of  which  has  been  paid  for  out  of 
the  earnings  of  the  penitentiary  during  the  fiscal  period,  except 
$170,671.00.” 


44 


During  the  year  1911  the  report  shows  an  excess  of  receipts  over 
current  expenses  $149,308.18. 

A  large  number  of  the  most  able-bodied  men  are  worked  on 
levees  and  not  on  the  farm.  For  1912  the  report  shows  they  will 
have  2,460  acres  of  corn  and  3,160  acres  of  cane,  besides  the  other 
miscellaneous  crops  and  vegetables  sufficient  for  their  own  use  and 
also  for  sale. 


WEST  VIRGINIA. 

The  letter  of  M.  L.  Brown,  Warden  of  the  penitentiary  at  Mounds- 
ville,  West  Virginia,  under  date  of  February  15,  1912,  to  the  attor¬ 
ney  general  is  also  instructive.  The  warden  states  that  part  of  the 
prisoners  are  employed  on  contract  labor  and  says  that  ‘  ‘  The  earn¬ 
ings  of  the  prisoners  are  given  to  them  and  they  are  permitted  to 
send  the  same  to  their  family,  or  they  may  spend  75  per  cent  of 
it  for  food  or  extra  clothing.” 

NET  PROFITS  OF  THE  INSTITUTION. 

‘ 1  This  institution  is  self-supporting  and  makes  for  the  state  about 
$35,000.  per  year  net.  Our  cell  house  is  modern  and  is  equipped 
with  electric  lights,  toilet  and  running  water.  Farming  is  carried 
on  in  connection  with  the  penitentiary.  We  have  about  240  acres, 
140  of  which  is  splendid  river  bottom  land  and  is  cultivated  in¬ 
tensively  for  farming  and  gardening  purposes.  The  remainder  is 
used  for  pasturage  for  the  dairy  herd  and  other  stock.  ’  ’ 

PROFITS  OF  THE  FARM. 

“ Figuring  our  products  from  the  farm  at  wholesale  rates  prev¬ 
alent  at  the  time  same  were  gathered ,  our  net  profit  on  the  farm 
for  the  last  year  was  a  little  over  $8,000.,  figuring  the  labor  at  the 
price  paid  by  the  contractors  inside  the  prison.  From  15  to  30 
men  are  used  in  cultivating  the  farm ,  including  the  teamsters — none 
of  whom  have  attempted  escape  for  the  past  four  years.  The  dis¬ 
cipline  here  is  first  class.  The  prisoners  are  well  fed  and  well 
clothed  and  are  apparently  as  well  satisfied  as  men  could  be  under 
such  circumstances 

This  is  certainly  a  splendid  showing  considering  that  only  15  to 
30  men  are  engaged  in  farming. 


—  45  — 


THE  FARM  AT  MANSFIELD. 

The  successful  operation  of  the  prison  farm  at  Mansfield,  Ohio, 
under  the  supervision  of  Dr.  Leonard,  the  men  working  entirely 
under  the  honor  system,  has  received  so  much  favorable  comment 
from,  time  to  time  in  magazines  and  other  publications  that  no 
additional  comment  is  needed. 

PURCHASE  OF  TWO  THOUSAND  ACRES  IN  ILLINOIS  FOR  PRISON 

FARM. 

The  attitude  of  the  state  of  Illinois  in  abandoning  its  present 
prison  grounds  and  buildings  with  an  original  cost  of  $17,000,000. 
and  a  present  valuation  of  perhaps  $3,000,000.  and  over,  and  the 
purchasing  of  2,000  acres  of  land  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
a  prison  farm  and  constructing  new  buildings  is  of  unusual  signif¬ 
icance.  The  legislature  of  Illinois  appropriated  $600,000  to  pur¬ 
chase  the  land  and  this  notwithstanding  that  there  is  already  a  farm 
of  over  200  acres  in  connection  with  the  present  prison,  11  acres  of 
which  are  in  grounds  and  200  acres  of  which  is  used  in  cultivation. 
In  other  words,  Illinois  is  now  abandoning  much  more  valuable 
buildings  and  grounds  than  the  state  of  Iowa  will  possess  after  its 
new  cell  house  at  Fort  Madison  is  entirely  completed. 

THE  PENAL  FARM  OF  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA. 

The  action  of  the  federal  government  in  the  purchase  of  over 
1,100  acres  of  land  at  Occoquan  and  the  establishment  of  a  prison 
farm  there  for  short  term  prisoners  received  unusual  attention  by 
the  delegates  at  the  last  International  Prison  Congress.  The  attorney 
general  of  this  state  visited  this  farm  and  spent  a  day  with  the 
superintendent  Mr.  J.  F.  Whittaker  at  the  institution.  The  build¬ 
ings  are  as  yet  temporary  in  their  nature.  The  land  needed  a  great 
deal  of  preliminary  work  before  cultivation  could  be  commenced, 
as  a  considerable  part  of  it  was  covered  with  an  underbrush.  There 
are  no  cells,  no  stone  walls  and  no  armed  guards  patrolling  the 
buildings.  There  is,  however,  a  barbed  wire  fence  around  the  men’s 
department  about  ten  feet  high,  but  it  would  of  course  afford  but 
little  obstruction  if  any  one  desired  to  escape.  The  number  of 
escapes  are  becoming  less  as  the  institution  is  becoming  established 
and  an  institutional  spirit  is  growing  up.  A  fine  large  cement 
barn  was  in  the  process  of  construction ;  all  kinds  of  live  stock  were 
being  raised;  considerable  attention  was  given  to  poultry;  various 


46  — 


forms  of  agriculture  were  being  carried  on.  The  institution  is 
equipped  with  an  excellent  brick  plant,  a  good  stone  crusher  and 
the  warden  has  every  confidence  in  the  permanent  success  of  the 
plan,  and  everything  about  the  farm  gave  evidence  that  his  con¬ 
fidence  was  well  founded. 

THE  CANADIAN  PENAL  FARM  AT  GUELPH. 

The  Central  Prisons  of  Canada  which  is  now  located  at  Toronto 
is  being  abandoned  and  the  prisoners  transferred  to  the  large  farm 
at  Guelph.  On  this  farm  there  is  one  of  the  finest  dairy  barns 
in  the  entire  Province.  The  honor  system  is  largely  in  use  and 
Dr.  Gilmore,  the  superintendent,  is  not  only  a  believer  in  outdoor 
labor  for  convicts  but  he  is  an  enthusiast  upon  the  subject.  Can¬ 
ada  is  not  permitting  the  value  of  the  buildings  in  Toronto,  where 
Central  Prisons  is  now  located,  to  deter  that  country  from  adopting 
the  latest  and  best  reformatory  methods  by  establishing  the  large 
penal  farm  at  Guelph. 

THE  NEW  YORK  REFORMATORY. 

The  result  of  Prof.  Franklin  H.  Briggs,  Superintendent  of  the 
Agricultural  and  Industrial  school  at  Industry,  Monroe  county, 
New  York,  is  of  special  significance.  This  reformatory  for  boys 
was  formerly  located  in  the  city  of  Rochester. 

THE  TRADES  SCHOOL  A  FAILURE. 

The  trades  school  had  been  developed  until  the  institution  con¬ 
tained  one  of  the  best  trades  schools  in  the  United  States.  Prof. 
Briggs  in  a  conversation  told  the  attorney  general  of  Iowa  that  in 
spite  of  the  excellent  equipment  for  industrial  training  he  had 
witnessed  boy  after  boy  come  into  his  institution  a  comparatively 
good  boy  and  not  in  any  ivay  a  criminal  by  nature  and  adopt  evil 
habits  and  constantly  groiv  worse  in  spite  of  every  effort  which  he 
could  put  forth.  Prof.  Briggs  said  that  it  was  this  experience  which 
caused  him  to  turn  to  the  farm  as  a  means  of  reformation  of  the 
boys. 

Prof.  Briggs  also  said  that  he  found  under  the  old  system  that 
the  conduct  of  the  worst  boys  in  the  school  determined  the  rules 
that  were  made  for  all,  so  that  a  large  number  of  good  boys  were 
denied  privileges  because  of  a  few  bad  boys. 


—  47 


THE  MERITS  OF  THE  FARM. 

The  Industrial  School  at  Industry  consists  of  thirty-six  cottages 
with  twenty-five  in  each  cottage  or  group.  These  cottages  are 
scattered  over  1,432  acres  of  ground.  When  asked  by  a  member 
of  our  committee  if  he  felt  there  were  that  many  different  grades 
in  the  moral  character  of  the  inmates,  he  said  he  would  not  exactly 
want  to  say  that  but  he  said  he  had  a  reason  for  each  separate 
classification.  Prof.  Briggs  has  carried  the  matter  of  segregation  and 
classification  to  its  logical  conclusion.  This  school  is  certainly  one 
of  the  greatest  of  its  kind  in  the  world.  The  groups  are  so  far 
separated  that  there  is  no  intermingling  of  the  groups  except  upon 
special  days  when  they  are  in  group  games.  When  asked  if  he 
believed  there  was  any  special  merit  in  agriculture  and  outdoor 
labor  his  reply  was:  “ I  do  not  believe  it;  I  know  it  absolutely ; 
it  is  no  longer  an  opinion.”  Then  he  told  of  the  attachment  of  the 
boys  to  the  animals  and  of  the  interest  which  they  had  in  their  work. 

THE  TAD’S  COLONY. 

lie  called  attention  to  the  work  done  at  the  “Tad’s”  Colony, 
as  he  termed  it,  a  group  of  boys  eleven  years  of  age  and  under. 
These  youngsters  produced  agricultural  products  last  year  which 
sold  for  fifteen  hundred  dollars. 

THE  BOYS’  COLONY. 

Another  boys’  colony  a  little  older  than  the  “Tad’s,”  produced 
agricultural  products  last  year  to  the  value  of  twenty-five  hundred 
dollars. 

OHIO  MAKES  SUCCESS  OF  PENAL  FARM. 

The  report  of  Warden  T.  H.  B.  Jones  of  Ohio  under  date  of 
November  1,  1910,  concerning  the  work  done  by  the  prisoners  on  the 
state  farm  in  Ohio  is  further  evidence  of  the  possibilities  in  this 
direction.  On  page  13  of  the  annual  report  to  the  governor,  the 
warden  states : 

“The  Knitting  Factory  and  the  Custodial  Farm  at  Morgan's 
Station  have  made  a  particularly  good  showing.  I  refer  in  a  spe¬ 
cial  manner  to  these  two  for  the  reason  that  they  are  both  innova¬ 
tions  in  connection  with  this  institution.  Despite  the  fact  that  it 
was  late  in  the  season  before  our  appropriation  for  farm  equipment 


—  48  — 


was  available,  the  400  acre  Custodial  Farm  at  Morgan’s  Station 
has,  in  my  estimation,  made  an  excellent  showing. 

PRISONERS’  EARNINGS  PER  DAY. 

The  warden  then  described  in  detail  the  operations  of  the  farm 
and  states  that  the  earnings  for  each  man  engaged  upon  the  farm 
was  $1.63  per  day  for  the  season,  making  no  allowance  for  the  erec¬ 
tion  of  a  new  cottage,  200  rods  of  fence,  the  construction  of  160 
rods  of  gravel  road,  besides  other  improvements  shown  in  detail  in 
the  farm  report.  He  anticipated  a  large  increase  of  earnings  the 
coming  year  and  recommended  the  purchase  of  a  number  of  stock 
cattle. 


WARDENS  RECOMMEND  PENAL  FARMS. 

Superintendent  Moore  of  the  Reformatory  of  New  Jersey  at  Rah¬ 
way  states  that  his  purpose  is  to  make  the  institution  as  nearly  as 
possible  like  the  normal  world  since  they  were  fitting  men  for  a 
normal  society,  and  says:  “What  the  institution  needs  is  a  large 
farm.*  *  *  *  There  are  twice  as  many  requests  for  young  men 

to  ivorh  on  farms  as  can  he  supplied;  more  farm  land  should  be 
secured.” 

The  board  of  control  of  the  State  of  Michigan  in  its  biennial  re¬ 
port  on  page  6  strongly  urges  the  purchase  of  a  large  penal  farm 
as  a  substitute  for  contract  labor,  saying:-  “We  know  of  no  labor 
better  calculated  to  assist  in  their  (the  prisoners)  reformation  than 
work  on  the  farm.” 

Warden  Simpson  of  Jackson,  Michigan,  writes  the  attorney  gen¬ 
eral  that  he  will  perhaps  cultivate  about  500  acres  this  year. 

Warden  Wolfer  of  Minnesota  writes  the  attorney  general:  “We 
expect  to  procure  at  least  another  half  section  of  land  very  soon 
after  we  move  down  to  the  new  prison.” 

Warden  Randall  of  St.  Cloud,  Minnesota,  states  that  farming 
and  gardening  is  carried  on ;  that  he  has  about  400  acres  of  land 
in  cultivation;  20  acres  of  garden,  and  that  he  has  also  400  acres 
of  meadow  land  and  a  fine  dairy  herd. 

Superintendent  James  of  the  state  penitentiary  at  Salem,  Ore¬ 
gon,  in  his  1911  report  makes  a  most  insistent  demand  for  additional 
land,  notwithstanding  that  they  now  have  a  farm  of  good  tillable 
land. 


49  — 


Many  oilier  wardens  in  their  reports  and  in  their  letters  to  our 
committee  strongly  recommend  the  penal  farm  as  the  best  method 
of  employment  for  prisoners. 

THE  PENAL  FARM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES. 

No  extended  mention  will  be  made  of  the  success  of  penal  farms 
in  other  countries  as  this  ground  is  covered  so  thoroughly  and  com¬ 
pletely  by  Prof.  Henderson  in  his  work,  already  referred  to,  en¬ 
titled  “Outdoor  Labor  for  Convicts”. 

A  few  references  and  excerpts  from  these  reports  might  be  of  ad¬ 
vantage  to  those  who  do  not  have  access  to  the  work  in  question. 

THE  WITZWIL  FARM  OF  BERNE. 

The  Witzwil  farm  of  Berne,  Switzerland,  contains  2000  acres. 

Otto  Kellerhals  the  director  of  the  colony  in  his  report  of  1904, 
states : 

“The  land  upon  which  the  colony  is  located,  with  improvements 
that  had  been  made  up  to  the  time  of  purchase — including  4  dwell¬ 
ings,  6  barns,  4  sheds,  and  a  schoolhouse,  with  a  stock  inventoried 
at  $11,000 — cost  $148,552.  By  the  end  of  1903  the  inventory  had 
risen  to  $86,924.55,  and  the  estimate  upon  the  buildings  alone  had 
increased  tc  more  than  the  purchase  price  of  the  entire  estate,  as 
is  shown  by  the  amount  of  insurance  carried.  Besides  these  new 
buildings  and  improvements,  the  land  has  risen  ATry  considerably 
in  value  because  of  drainage  and  cultivation,  the  expense  in  recent 
years  upon  these  items  amounting  to  $10,000  or  $14,000.  All  these 
improvements,  by  which  the  entire  estate  has  so  much  increased  in 
value,  have  cost  the  government  nothing. 

“The  value  of  the  stock  upon  the  farm  at  the  end  of  1903  was 
$35,526.,  and  the  net  profits  from  agriculture  were  $19,326.  Not 
only  are  all  the  needs  of  the  institution  met,  but  it  is  able  to  put 
some  of  its  produce  upon  the  market,  although  avoiding  any  com¬ 
petition  with  free  labor.” 

A  GOOD  BUSINESS  INVESTMENT. 

Mr.  Frank  A.  Fetter  in  the  Survey  for  February  4,  1911,  re¬ 
ferring  to  the  Witzwil  farm  states: 

4 


—  50 


“This  farming  enterprise  in  which  most  of  the  work  is  done  by 
prisoners  has  proved  to  be  a  good  investment  for  the  canton.  There 
has  been  expended  by  the  canton,  all  told,  for  land  $200,000.  for 
building  material  $100,000.  and  other  cash  advances  (net,  after  de¬ 
ducting  the  so-called  rent  paid  to  the  canton),  $50,000.  a  total  of 
$350,000.  The  present  worth  of  the  whole  plant  (land,  buildings, 
stock,  cash  fund)  is  at  a  low  estimate  $550,000.,  an  average  gain  for 
the  time  the  institution  has  been  in  full  operation  of  over  $13,000 
a  year.  While  the  care  of  the  200  ( sometimes  over  250)  prisoners 
is  without  cost  to  the  public,  the  actual  outlay  on  new  buildings  and 
equipment  has  amounted  to  a  good  return  on  the  investment  in 
grounds  and  buildings.  Yet  this  has  been  done  without  the  lease 
or  the  contract  systems  of  labor,  and  with  no  injurious  competition 
with,  or  protests  from,  free  labor.  Within  the  last  year  the  land 
has  at  length  been  brought  fairly  under  cultivation,  so  that  it  would 
seem  that  the  results  in  the  future  would  be  still  more  favorable.” 

THE  EFFECT  UPON  THE  PRISONER. 

Director  Kellerhals  in  his  report  states  that  the  open  air  employ¬ 
ment  has  a  peculiar  value  both  upon  the  health  and  the  reformation 
of  the  individual.  He  states  that  much  of  the  work  done  in  closed 
prisons  is  of  no  value  to  the  prisoner  upon  his  return  to  society, 
but  that  “The  conditions  are  quite  otherwise  in  an  ‘establishment  in 
the  open  air’,  as  Dr.  Goos  of  Copenhagen,  calls  ours.  Not  only  can 
a  debilitated  young  man  recuperate  better  and  much  more  rapidly 
than  in  the  unhealthy  atmosphere  of  the  workshop,  but  he  can  there 
acquire  in  less  time  the  practical  knowledge  which  is  demanded  of 
a  'well-paid  workman.  Agriculture  always  needs  labor,  and  a  work¬ 
man  of  good  will  is  sure  of  finding  a  way  of  earning  his  living. 
Agricultural  establishments  are  especially  helpf  ul  to  those  prisoners 
who,  after  having  undergone  a  long  sentence,  approach  the  end  of 
their  term.” 

The  reason  given  for  this  is  because  of  the  mechanical  routine  of 
the  ordinary  prison.  He  therefore  states  : 

“We  cannot  do  better  than  to  re-awaken  this  interest  in  them  and 
prepare  them  for  the  struggle  for  existence  which  awaits  them,  than 
to  make  them  pass  the  last  period  of  their  imprisonment  in  a  penal 
agricultural  colony.  Agricultural  w^ork  more  than  any  other  oc¬ 
cupation  makes'  it  possible  to  keep  an  eye  on  lazy  men.  They  are 
placed  in  a  work  group  and  they  must  keep  up  with  their  cofnrades. 


51 


That  is  why  the  agricultural  colonies  are  a  horror  to  vagabonds  and 
notorious  sluggards,  while  the  good  workers  find  themselves  relative¬ 
ly  happy  there.” 


PROFITS  MAY  BE  REALIZED. 

‘‘Experience  has  demonstrated  besides  that  penitentiary  colonies 
well  administered  may  not  only  dispense  with  state  subsidies,  but 
can  even  realize  profits  which  permit  them  to  increase  their  invest¬ 
ment,  to  aid  the  near  relatives  of  prisoners,  and  help  discharged 
prisoners.  We  succeed  better  in  improving  men  by  education,  per¬ 
suasion,  and  goodness,  than  by  fear  of  punishment,  and  it  is  in  con¬ 
sideration  of  this  fact  that  we  seek  to-day  by  means  of  occupation 
in  the  open  air  to  make  apparent  to  the  prisoner  the  blessing  of 
work,  of  duty  conscientiously  performed. 

PRISONERS  BECOME  INTERESTED. 

“He  never  fails  to  become  interested  in  his  task  when  he  sees  the 
products  of  his  own  labor  grown  and  bearing  fruit.  lie  learns  to 
love  the  work  that  he  feared,  and  it  later  becomes  a  daily  necessity 
for  him.  He  does  not  feel  that  incessant  surveillance  resting  upon 

him  and  controlling  each  of  his  steps,  each  of  his  movements,  and 
repeating  to  him  continually ,  ‘You  are  in  the  penitentiary.’  This 
relative  freedom  that  he  enjoys  reconciles  him  with  his  surroundings 
and  with  his  fate. 


VARIETY  OF  OCCUPATION. 

“The  great  diversity  of  occupation  that  an  agricultural  peniten¬ 
tiary  colony  offers  permits  the  director  to  treat  his  prisoners  as 
individuals,  to  punish  some  by  imposing  upon  them  a  disagreeable 
task,  and  to  reward  others  by  agreeable  work.  The  task  of  the 
prisoners  can  be  varied  each  day,  a  thing  almost  impossible  in  the 
penitentiary  shops  where  work  is  done  as  in  a  factory.  Educational 
efforts,  which  should  always  be  first  of  all  in  a  good  example,  differ 
from  those  hitherto  in  vogue.  It  is  necessary  to  have  a  numerous 
staff  in  agricultural  work,  but  the  overseers  should  work  like  the 
prisoners,  setting  them  the  example  of  courage  and  persistence,  and 
during  the  harvesting,  when  work  is  most  pressing,  all  the  officials, 
including  the  director,  should  take  an  active  part  in  the  work. 


—  52  — 


A  further  reason  given  by  director  Kellerhals  for  the  farm  colony 
is  that  it  is  productive  and  useful,  does  not  compete  with  free  labor 
and  is  best  suited  to  restore  the  health  of  the  prisoner.  He  adds : 

“  The  ravages  of  tuberculosis,  found  in  certain  prisons,  are  not  to 
be  feared  in  the  agricultural  colonies.  On  the  contrary,  the  physi¬ 
cian  at  Witzwil  remarks  that  the  condition  of  the  prisoners  affected 
with  pulmonary  tuberculosis,  emphyseman,  and  chronic  bronchitis 
improves  perceptibly  during  their  long  stay  in  our  establishment. 
He  attributes  it  to  their  regular  life,  their  work  in  the  open,  and 
the  healthful  and  strengthening  food.” 

REPORT  FROM  AUSTRIA. 

This  testimony  from  the  prison  farm  which  is  considered  the 
model  of  the  world  is  in  exact  accord  with  the  Director  General  of 
Austria,  Anton  Marcovich,  who  states: 

‘ 1  It  has  always  been  clear  that  the  employment  of  convicts  in  the 
open  air  tended  to  their  moral  improvement  and  preparation  for 
free  life.” 


OUTDOOR  WORK  IN  SIBERIA. 

Dr.  Jules  Fekete  De  Nagyivany,  Councilor  of  the  Criminal  Court 
of  Budapest,  reports  that  in  1893  the  180  convicts  under  the  direc¬ 
tion  of  16  overseers  near  Weitelsdorf  in  a  Siberian  winter  accom¬ 
plished  an  extraordinarily  difficult  but  very  valuable  work  in  im¬ 
proving  the  Drave.  He  states  that: 

“The  free  laborers  were  unable  to  accomplish  that  difficult  task 
which  the  convicts,  housed  in  a  wooden  penitentiary,  executed  with 
remarkable  courage.  The  work  was  accomplished  in  nine  years  by 
3,477  convicts,  and  the  net  profit  amounted  to  174,932  crowns.  But 
far  more  precious  was  the  moral  improvement  of  the  convicts  by 
reason  of  their  heroic  efforts  at  the  time  of  the  fires  and  inundations 
— a  success  of  which  they  were  proud  because  they  were  guided  by 
noble  sentiments.  Though  long  term  convicts  are  thus  used,  only 
five  escapes  in  the  course  of  eight  years  have  occurred.  It  has  even 
happened  that  one  group  was  placed,  during  a  year  and  a  half,  far 
from  the  central  penitentiary,  and  the  honest  execution  of  the  work 
did  not  suffer  on  that  account.”  (Page  7,  Outdoor  Labor  for 
Convicts.) 


—  53  — 


SUCCESS  IN  HUNGARY. 

Dr.  Fekete  also  reports  that  the  agricultural  work  of  prisoners 
was  inaugurated  in  Hungary  in  1884  and  that  the  first  experiment, 
the  largest,  was  made  by  the  improvement  of  marshy  lands  in  the 
penitentiary  of  Lipotvar  where  the  convicts  by  many  years’  hard 
labor  have  given  to  cultivation  a  tract  of  77  jochs  and  constructed 
the  intermediate  establishment.  He  reports  that  in  Hungary  the 
privilege  of  outdoor  labor  is  a  reward  for  good  conduct  to  prisoners. 
He  reports  that  at  the  prison  of  Sartoralja-Ujhely  outdoor  work  has 
been  crowned  with  great  success ;  that  in  this  prison  the  inmates  are 
intrusted  with  the  cultivation  of  vineyards ;  that  the  pay  is  from  80 
heller  to  a  crown  per  day  for  each  convict.  He  states  that : 

‘  ‘  In  general  their  conduct  is  excellent.  They  work  with  pleasure, 
because  they  carry  with  them  on  leaving  the  prison  a  considerable 
sum,  considering  that  they  spend  the  greater  part  of  their  wages 
for  better  food.  During  the  last  two  years  disciplinary  punishment 
has  been  inflicted  in  only  two  cases  and  that  for  smoking.  Because 
the  institute  gives  the  most  attention  to  the  moral  amelioration  of 
the  convicts,  which  it  truly  accomplishes,  we  should  not  ignore  the 
material  profit  obtained;  for  not  only  do  individuals  profit  by  the 
good  work  of  the  prisoners,  but  the  treasury  also  has  a  profit,  proved 
by  the  fact  that  in  1903  there  was  realized  a  net  profit  of  13,332.34 
crowns  for  that  work,  which  is  poorly  paid.  The  prisoners  are  com¬ 
pletely  separated  from  the  free  laborers,  and  the  management  en¬ 
forces  rigorous  rules.  In  Hungary  they  have  already  commenced 
to  introduce  the  new  system,  and  since  all  the  essential  conditions  of 
its  introduction  are  present,  the  time  is  approaching  when  the  penal 
agricultural  colony  will  become  one  of  the  valued  means  of  great 
national  enterprises.”  (Page  9  Outdoor  Labor  for  Convicts.) 

ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  PENAL  FARM. 

Dr.  Fekete  further  states,  what  every  one  who  has  considered  the 
matter  knows  to  be  true,  that  an  idle  life  is  the  principal  source 
of  recidivism ;  that  the  prison  has  a  most  depressing  influence  upon 
the  prisoner  and  that  as  a  general  rule  the  prisoner  cannot  acquire 
a  sufficient  amount  of  skill  in  any  one  line  of  work  in  the  cellular 
prison  to  enable  him  to  secure  a  job  upon  his  release  and  cope  with 
free  labor,  and  he  states  what  is  peculiarly  applicable  not  only  to 
our  country  but  our  own  state  that  since  there  is  such  large  immigi  a- 


—  54  — 


tion  from  rural  districts  to  cities  that  the  farmers  are  suffering  for 
lack  of  help,  and  that  it  would  therefore  he  much  better  to  fit  the 
men  for  a  useful  life  upon  the  farm  than  to  send  them  out  broken 
in  body  and  spirit  to  increase  the  number  of  toilers  in  the  city. 

RECOMMENDATIONS  FROM  FRANCE. 


This  testimony  is  in  exact  harmony  with  the  report  of  the  Direc¬ 
tor  of  the  Central  House  and  of  the  penitentiary  in  the  Circon- 
scription  of  Poissy  (Seine-et-oise)  France.  Dr.  M.  Laguesse  states 
that  “It  is  important,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  prisoner  of  rural 
origin  return  to  his  agricultural  occupation,  tfncl  it  is  fitting  that  he 
should  be  trained  in  his  calling  during  his  detention,  for  the  sake 
of  his  moral  welfare,  his  health,  and  his  future.  #  #  To  trans¬ 

port  him  abruptly  from  the  free  air  to  the  confined  atmosphere  of 
the  cell  or  the  thronged  factory  is  to  start  him  on  the  road  to 
anemia  and  tuberculosis.  It  is  to  take  the  responsibility  of  remov¬ 
ing  a  strong  unit  from  national  production,  and  of  transforming  it 
into  a  social  parasite  destined  to  die  in  prison  or  in  hospital.  *  *  * 
■  It  is  not  absolutely  necessary  to  put  people  in  a  cage  in  order  to 
restrict  liberty.”  (Outdoor  Labor  for  Convicts  page  27). 


After  reporting  then  in  detail  upon  outdoor  labor  for  convicts, 
including  the  agricultural  penitentiaries  on  the  island  of  Corsica, 
Dr. -Laguesse  states  that:  “The  conduct  of  the  prisoners  was  ex¬ 
cellent,  and  the  originality  of  their  situation  kept  them  obedient, 
because  they  enjoyed  a  relative  liberty  which  they  feared  to  lose  by 
misconduct. 


EFFECT  OF  SECLUSION  UPON  THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM. 

We  noticed  then  that  the  penitentiary  seclusion  sours  the  pris¬ 
oners  because  of  the  nervous  depression  that  it  causes.  In  the  cen¬ 
tral  prison  of  Melum  I  have  known  the  worst  subjects  to  become 
docile  and  tractable  when  once  employed  in  the  penitentiaries  of 
Corsica.  With  regard  to  most  of  the  men,  I  recall  the  evil  conduct 
in  the  central  prison  and  on  the  other  hand  their  good  conduct  in 
the  agricultural  prison.  Most  of  them  declared  to  me  that  confine¬ 
ment  in  the  shop,  the  absence  of  fresh  air,  brought  on  a  state  of 
irritability  that  they  could  not  overcome.  *  *  *  A  legal  arrange¬ 
ment  should  be  made  to  punish  severely  both  the  attempt  to  escape 
and  the  successful  attempt;  if  it  is  aided  by  persons  outside,  the 
penalty  should  equal  that  inflicted  on  the  fugitives.  Habitual  bad 


—  55  — 


conduct  and  idleness  should  result  in  the  guilty  convict  being  sent 
from  the  outside  establishment  to  an  establishment  for  close  con¬ 
finement.”  (Outdoor  Labor  for  Convicts',  pages  27  to  30.) 

SUCCESS  OF  PENAL  FARM  NOT  CONFINED  TO  ANY  COUNTRY, 

RACE  OR  CLASS. 

The  penal  and  reformatory  institutions  mentioned  in  which  farm¬ 
ing  operations  have  been  carried  on  successfully  in  this  country 
represent  but  a  small  part  of  such  institutions  in  the  United  States. 
The  particular  ones  selected  are  sufficient  to  demonstrate  that  the 
success  of  a  prison  farm  is  not  confined  to  any  geographical  loca¬ 
tion  of  our  country,  nor  to  any  age,  race  or  class  of  prisoners,  nor 
upon  the  length  of  time  the  prisoners  are  confined,  and  the  refer¬ 
ences  to  penal  colonies  in  foreign  countries  are  sufficient  to  demon¬ 
strate  that  the  agricultural  farm  may  be  successfully  operated  in  any 
country  in  the  world  where  there  is  suitable  land  for  cultivation. 

HAS  PASSED  EXPERIMENTAL  STAGE. 

We  feel  then  that  from  the  success  at  our  penitentiary  at  Fort 
Madison,  with  the  limited  amount  of  land  in  cultivation,  from  the 
personal  investigation  made  by  members  of  this  committee,  from 
the  reports  of  prison  officials  from  other  states  in  the  Union,  and 
from  other  countries  that  the  employment  of  prisoners  on  penal 
farms  has  passed  the  experimental  stage  and  that  the  success  and 
advantage  of  such  employment  is  absolutely  certain  if  the  proper 
kind  and  amount  of  land  is  secured,  and  if  the  management  is 
honest  and  efficient,  and  care  is  taken  in  the  classification  and  selec¬ 
tion  of  prisoners  to  engage  in  this  work.  There  will  be  a  certain 
percentage  of  prisoners  who  cannot  be  trusted  beyond  the  prison 
walls  and  who  will  not  respond  readily  to  reformatory  treatment, 
but  these  men  are  the  exception  and  one  of  the  strongest  reasons 
for  the  establishment  of  a  prison  farm  is  for  the  purpose  of  better 
classification  and  segregation  to  the  end  that  men  who  are  not  crim¬ 
inal  by  nature  or  inherently  corrupt  may  not  be  compelled  to  live 
in  the  same  environment  with  men  who  are.  It  is  unfair  for  the 
men  who  wish  to  comport  themselves  with  decency  and  who  give 
evidence  of  good  conduct  and  industry  to  be  subject  to  the  discipline 
necessary  to  control  the  professional  crook  and  the  most  hardened 
criminals  but  this  is  unavoidable  where  a  large  number  of  prisoners 


—  56  — 


are  all  housed  in  the  same  building  or  confined  within  the  same 
prison  walls. 

NECESSITY  FOR  CLASSIFICATION,  SEGREGATION  AND  THE  INDI¬ 
VIDUALIZATION  OF  PUNISHMENT. 

Practical  prison  officials,  from  the  warden  of  our  own  peniten¬ 
tiary  to  the  wardens  and  superintendents  of  the  large  penal  insti¬ 
tutions  of  this  country  and  the  directors  and  governors  of  the  large 
penal  institutions  of  Europe,  and  the  leading  authorities  on  penol¬ 
ogy  in  this  and  other  countries,  recognize  three  things  as  funda¬ 
mental  to  any  great  prison  reform,  viz :  (a)  classification ;  (b)  dif¬ 

ferentiation  and  segregation;  and  (c)  to  use  a  French  phrase,  “the 
individualization  of  punishment;”  that  is,  the  treatment  of  men  as 
individual  beings  rather  than  the  treatment  of  crime  in  the  abstract 
or  the  convict  as  a  type  or  class. 

Sir  Evelyn  Ruggles  Brise,  who,  at  the  last  International  Prison 
Congress  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  was  elected  to  succeed  Prof.  Chas.  R. 
Henderson  as  president  of  the  Congress,  in  his  address  to  the  Con¬ 
gress,  said :  “Of  all  the  prison  systems  of  the  world,  that  will  be 
the  best  where  the  arrangements  admit  of  the  greatest  individual 
attention  being  given  to  each  individual  case.” 

There  is  substantially  no  difference  of  opinion  on  this  point  be¬ 
tween  the  great  penologists  and  the  leading  prison  officials. 
Many  similar  statements  might  be  quoted  which  were  made  by  sup¬ 
erintendents  and  wardens  of  large  penal  institutions  to  one  of  the 
members  of  this  committee,  and  it  is  the  actual  carrying  out  to  its 
logical  result  of  this  idea  which  so  signally  characterizes  the  success 
of  Prof.  Briggs  in  his  Agricultural  and  Industrial  School  for  boys 
at  Industry,  New  York. 

SEGREGATION  IMPOSSIBLE  AT  FORT  MADISON. 

Your  excellency  is  well  aware  of  the  fact  that  this  classification, 
this  segregation  and  this  individualization  of  treatment  and  punish¬ 
ment  is  not  possible  with  the  large  number  of  offenders  at  Fort 
Madison,  guilty  of  all  forms  and  degrees  of  crime. 

A  NEW  PRISON  FARM  THE  SOLUTION. 

The  only  proper  solution  of  the  problem  is,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  committee,  the  establishment  of  a  new  prison  farm.  This 
farm  should  be  established  upon  the  colony  system  so  as  to 


57 


afford  opportunity  for  complete  classification,  segregation  and  in¬ 
dividual  treatment  of  prisoners.  There  should  be  confined  to  this 
farm  first  offenders,  who  were  not  shown  to  be  depraved  and  vicious 
by  nature  except  those  who  should  receive  special  manual  training, 
and  these  should  be  sent  to  Anamosa,  and  the  board  of  parol  should 
have  authority  to  transfer  such  recidivists  and  long  term  offenders 
who  had  served  a  substanial  part  of  their  sentences  at  Fort  Madison 
and  had  also  given  such  evidence  of  good  conduct  as  to  make  it  com¬ 
paratively  certain  that  if  transferred  to  the  farm  no  injury  would 
result  therefrom. 


SIZE  AND  LOCATION  OF  FARM. 

The  farm  should  contain  at  least  2000  acres.  It  should  be 
located  so  as  to  be  reasonably  accessible  to  the  capital  city.  This 
would  afford  opportunity  for  more  frequent  inspection  by  the 
governor,  the  board  of  control,  the  board  of  parol,  the  attorney 
general  and  members  of  the  general  assembly.  The  farm  should 
be  isolated  and  hence  should  not  be  in  the  immediate  proximity  of 
any  city  or  town.  It  should,  however,  be  located  near  a  steam  or 
interurban  railway  with  arrangements  for  station  stop  and  side 
tracks. 

CO-OPERATION  OF  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE  AND  PENAL  FARM. 

There  should  be  intensive  farming  following  the  scientific  prin¬ 
ciples  of  agriculture.  The  farm  should  therefore  be  located  reason¬ 
ably  accessible  to  our  State  Agricultural  College  at  Ames,  and  the 
professors  of  our  Agricultural  College,  post-graduates  and  under¬ 
graduate  students  of  sufficient  training  should  give  instruction  at 
the  penal  farm  in  scientific  agriculture,  including  instruction  in 
dairying,  poultry  and  stock  raising;  in  short,  there  should  be  that 
co-operation  and  assistance  given  by  the  Agricultural  College  as 
to  furnish  the  prisoners  with  a  knowledge  of  every  branch  neces¬ 
sary  to  practical  farming,  under  the  most  improved  and  scientific 
methods.  This  farm  should  not  be  sufficiently  close  to  the  Agri¬ 
cultural  College  as  to  make  it  easy  for  students  to  visit  out  of 
idle  curiosity,  and  it  goes  without  saying  that  the  function  of  the 
Agricultural  College  should  be  to  furnish  instruction  and  nothing 
more.  Under  this  system,  instead  of  using  military  guards  on 
dress  parade,  graduates  of  the  Agricultural  College  could  be  used 
as  instructors  and  co-laborers. 


—  58  — 


ADVANTAGE  TO  BOTH  INSTITUTIONS. 

Co-operation  of  the  Agricultural  College  with  a  large  penal  farm 
would  he  of  very  great  value  to  both  institutions.  It  would  fur¬ 
nish  for  the  College  a  means  of  experimentation  and  demonstra¬ 
tion  ;  it  would  furnish  additional  opportunity  for  students  to  put 
their  theoretical  knowledge  into  actual  practice  and  it  would  fur¬ 
nish  the  most  healthful  employment  possible  for  the  prisoners. 
It  would  be  the  highest  kind  of  productive  labor ;  it  would  give 
the  prisoners  that  kind  of  practical  knowledge  which  would  he  of 
the  most  value  to  them  upon  their  release.  The  labor  would  not 
be  injurious  to  free  labor,  nor  would  the  prisoners  be  performing 
a  woman’s  work  or  the  work  of  the  blind.  Every  branch  of  farm¬ 
ing  should  and  could  be  carried  on  and  dairying  and  poultry  and 
stock  raising  should  all  receive  special  attention. 

DEMAND  FOR  FARM  LABOR. 

Our  board  of  parol  says  that  they  can  always  secure  a  position 
for  a  prisoner  upon  the  farm  if  he  is  capable.  The  demand  for 
farm  laborers  is  always  in  excess  of  the  supply,  but  the  reverse  of 
this  is  true  with  men  engaged  in  other  occupations.  Many  a  man 
is  kept  at  our  penitentiaries  and  reformatories  for  a  considerable 
period  of  time  after  he  is  subject  to  parol  until  a  position  for  him 
may  be  secured. 


THE  VALUE  TO  SOCIETY. 

The  value  to  the  state  and  to  society  in  transforming  a  large 
number  of  debilitated  and  shiftless  men  from  cities  and  towns  who 
previously  spent  their  time  in  idleness  into  useful,  healthy  citizens 
to  go  into  every  part  of  the  state  upon  their  release  and  engage 
in  the  highest  form  of  productive  labor,  viz :  scientific  agriculture, 
scientific  dairying  and  poultry  and  stock  raising,  is  beyond  esti¬ 
mate  ;  but  to  even  return  to  the  farm  those  who  have  previously 
been  engaged  in  farming,  instead  of  transferring  them  to  cities 
and  towns  upon  their  release,  at  best  only  partly  equipped  to  earn 
a  livelihood,  will  be  of  untold  value,  provided  that  during  their 
confinement  on  the  penal  farm  they  receive  that  knowledge  and 
training  in  farming  and  that  degree  of  efficiency  which  they  un¬ 
doubtedly  should  receive. 


—  59  — 


INCREASE  OF  FOOD  SUPPLY. 

George  E.  Roberts  in  his  address  at  the  annual  dinner  of  the  Iowa 
Society  of  New  York  directed  particular  attention  to  the  necessity 
of  the  increase  of  food  supply  and  the  increase  of  the  efficiency 
of  the  agricultural  classes.  That  Mr.  Roberts  is  correct  in  his 
conclusions  is  generally  recognized.  If  this  be  true,  what  more 
practical  method  can  be  adopted  to  contribute  to  this  end  than 
the  suggestions  herein  made. 

CO-OPERATION  PRACTICAL. 

In  recommending  this  co-operation  of  the.  agricultural  college 
with  a  large  penal  farm  we  are  not  recommending  something  theo¬ 
retical  but  something  intensely  practical.  We  found  that  this 
assistance  and  co-operation  which  we  are  contending  for  is  now 
being  given  by  the  agricultural  department  of  Cornell  University 
of  New  York  to  the  George  Junior  Republic  of  Freeville.  Mr. 
Calvin  Derrick,  Superintendent,  advised  the  attorney  general  that 
great  good  had  resulted  therefrom. 

Prof.  Briggs  at  Industry,  New  York,  is  also  teaching  his  boys 
the  principles  of  scientific  agriculture  and  scientific  farming.  They 
have  their  annual  fair  and  prizes  are  offered  for  those  showing  the 
greatest  skill  in  raising  stock  of  various  kinds,  poultry,  corn,  small 
grain  and  vegetables;  in  short,  the  skill  and  science  displayed  in 
every  form  of  practical  farming  is  rewarded  at  these  annual  fairs. 

We  then  have  practical  demonstrations  of  what  we  are  recom¬ 
mending.  If  it  is  profitable,  practicable  and  advisable  to  teach 
scientific  agriculture  and  scientific  farming  to  youthful  offenders, 
is  it  not  equally  as  advisable  and  practicable  to  teach  it  to  adult 
offenders?  We  believe  that  every  reason  for  teaching  scientific 
farming  and  scientific  agriculture  to  youthful  offenders  applies 
even  to  a  greater  degree  to  adult  offenders  if  they  are  men  who  will 
likely  engage  in  farming  as  an  occupation  upon  their  release. 

OPINION  OF  DEAN  CURTISS. 

The  attorney  general  submitted  to  Dean  Curtiss  of  our  Agricul¬ 
tural  College  the  possibility  and  advisability  of  our  Agricultural 
College  furnishing  this  co-operation  and  in  reply  thereto  Prof. 
Curtiss  under  date  of  May  2,  1912,  states: 

“I  am  interested  in  the  suggestion  which  you  make  concerning 
a  state  farm  for  first  and  short  term  prisoners.  I  am  heartily  in 


—  60  — 


accord  with  the  plan  of  furnishing  useful  and  instructive  employ¬ 
ment  of  that  kind  to  prisoners,  and  I  believe  that  the  farm  method 
offers  a  good  solution  of  the  problem.  I  have  consulted  with  some 
of  our  people  here  and  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  college  could 
co-operate  in  some  such  manner  as  you  suggest.  *  *  *  I  believe  that 
co-operation  in  this  way  would  be  of  mutual  advantage  to  both 
institutions,  and  of  service  to  the  citizens  of  Iowa.” 

Prof.  Curtiss  further  states  in  his  letter  that  which  is  obviously 
true  that  the  farm  should  not  be  located  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  the  college,  and  that  the  College  should  have  no  responsibility 
except  in  instruction  and  demonstration  work. 

CONDITIONS  FAVORABLE  IN  IOWA. 

We  believe  that  in  Iowa  the  conditions  are  more  favorable  to  the 
establishment  of  a  large  penal  farm  than  in  any  state  in  the  Union. 
We  are  and  probably  always  will  be  primarily  an  agricultural  state 
and  perhaps  as  great  a  variety  of  grain,  fruit  and  vegetables  can 
be  raised  in  Iowa  as  in  any  other  part  of  the  country. 

WOULD  FURNISH  MEANS  OF  SEGREGATION. 

A  penal  farm  would  furnish  a  means  of  properly  segregating 
the  criminal  insane  and  those  on  the  border  line  of  insanity.  Ana- 
mosa  has  not  now  a  sufficient  amount  of  ground  and  equipment 
to  properly  care  for  such  prisoners.  Anamosa  could  then  devote 
particular  attention  to  the  trades  school  and  develop  and  strengthen 
a  general  school  system.  The  state  would  then  send  the  men  under 
thirty,  who  had  not  previously  been  convicted  of  a  felony  and  who 
had  lived  a  city  life  and  engaged  in  a  trade,  and  who  would  likely 
return  to  the  city,  to  Anamosa  to  become  skilled  apprentices  if 
not  tradesmen;  and  young  men  now  eligible  for  Anamosa,  who 
were  especially  deficient  in  school  training,  could  be  sent  there; 
and  all  the  young  men  who  would  likely  engage  in  farming  as 
an  occupation  would  be  sent  to  the  farm  instead  of  Anamosa. 

It  would  also  offer  the  proper  means  of  segregating  the  tuber¬ 
cular,  syphilitic,  and  all  other  persons  either  physically  or  men¬ 
tally  unfit  to  associate  with  the  general  mass,  and  it  would  afford 
the  only  proper  means  of  so  classifying  prisoners  into  groups  as 
that  the  discipline  could  be  entirely  adapted  to  the  character  and 
conduct  of  the  prisoners,  and  it  would  furnish  an  opprotunity  for 
a  fundamental  change  in  our  prison  ^management. 


-61 


CONTRAST  OF  SYSTEMS. 

The  attorney  general  asked  the  warden  of  a  large  penal  insti¬ 
tution  what  objection  he  had  to  the  men  being  permitted  to  talk 
and  hold  social  intercourse  at  meal  time.  His  reply  was  this: 
“When  the  merchants  get  together  they  talk  trade;  when  lawyers 
and  doctors  get  together,  they  talk  their  professions;  the  farmer 
talks  his,  and  the  criminal  and  crook  would  necessarily  indulge 
in  conversation  concerning  crime  and  criminals.” 

At  another  large  penal  institution  where  the  men  were  permitted 
to  talk  at  the  table,  the  statement  of  the  former  warden  was  quoted 
to  the  superintendent  of  that  institution.  The  reply  of  the  super¬ 
intendent  of  the  modern  institution  was  this:  “The  statement  is 
probably  true  if  the  men  are  working  under  the  contract  system 
without  any  compensation,  incentive  and  apparently  without  hope, 
but  the  men  in  my  institution  who  are  engaged  in  outdoor  labor, 
who  are  put  upon  their  honor,  who  have  taken  a  keen  interest 
in  their  work,  who  have  become  attached  to  the  stock  and  the  ani¬ 
mals,  are  not  interested  in  crime  and  crooks,  and  when  they  come 
to  the  table  and  are  permitted  to  talk,  they  talk  about  their  work, 
they  talk  about  the  things  they  are  interested  in.” 

The  replies  of  these  two  wardens  go  to  the  very  heart  of  the 
proposition.  Under  a  contract  system  where  the  men  can  see  no 
correspondence  between  their  efforts  and  the  time  of  their  libera¬ 
tion,  and  but  little  correspondence  between  their  conduct  and  their 
treatment  and  welfare,  when  they  feel  that  they  are  being  exploited 
for  the  benefit  of  a  private  contractor,  when  they  know  that  the 
family  dependent  upon  them  is  at  the  point  of  starvation  or  a 
county  charge,  and  when  they  are  further  depressed  by  the  lack 
of  sunshine  and  fresh  air  until  they  become  embittered  in  their 
nature  and  almost  abandon  hope,  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  if 
they  are  permitted  social  intercourse  with  each  other  and  granted 
many  privileges  evil  results  will  necessarily  follow.  Under  such  a 
system  discipline  must  be  severe  though  never  brutal.  The  men 
must  be  kept  constantly  under  surveillance  and  control.  If,  how¬ 
ever,  the  men  are  permitted  to  work  in  outdoor  employment,  breathe 
pure  oxygen  and  receive  God’s  sunshine  and  be  made  to  feel  that 
they  will  be  required  to  undo  the  wrong  which  they  have  com¬ 
mitted  as  nearly  as  possible  and  no  more,  that  their  welfare  and 
treatment  will  be  in  exact  correspondence  with  their  conduct  and 
effort,  that  they  will  be  fully  compensated  for  their  efforts  less 
the  cost  of  their  own  maintenance  and  the  expense  they  have  en- 


—  62  — 


tailed,  if  by  this  method  of  compensation  they  can  feel  some 
economic  independence,  secure  proper  supplies  at  their  own  option 
and  earn  a  sufficient  wage  to  support  members  of  their  family,  if 
they  have  any,  if  not  accumulate  a  bank  account  to  be  used  upon 
their  release ;  then  inspiration,  hope  and  reward  will  take  the  place 
of  physical  force  and  fear. 

THE  VALUE  OF  AN  INCENTIVE. 

Where  there  is  little  or  no  relationship  or  correspondence  be¬ 
tween  effort  and  reward  the  most  severe  form  of  discipline  is  re¬ 
quired,  and  the  least  working  efficiency  of  the  prisoner  is  reported. 
Wherever  the  correspondence  between  good  conduct,  effort  and  in¬ 
dustry  on  the  one  hand  and  reward  on  the  other  is  the  greatest, 
the  least  discipline  is  required,  and  the  maximum  of  efficiency 
of  prison  labor  is  reported. 

THE  DEFECT  IN  PRISON  SYSTEMS. 

This  being  true,  there  can  be  neither  reform  nor  efficiency  under 
any  system  that  deprives  a  prisoner  of  incentive  and  hope ;  hence 
the  committee  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  fundamental  defect  in 
nearly  all  prison  systems  consists  in  this :  that  the  prisoner  is 
unable  to  see  and  realize  any  direct  connection  between  his  con¬ 
duct,  his  efforts  and  industry  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  kind  of 
his  maintenance,  his  reward  and  time  of  liberation  on  the  other 
hand. 

We  believe  then  that  the  statement  of  Sir  Evelyn  Brise  should  be 
amended  so  as  to  read  that  that  system  is  best  which  permits  of 
the  greatest  “individualization  of  punishment”  and  which  con¬ 
tains  the  greatest  correspondence  between  effort  and  reward,  and 
by  effort  we  mean  to  include  the  whole  conduct  of  the  man  includ¬ 
ing  his  efforts  for  moral  and  mental  improvement,  as  well  as  his 
efforts  to  become  a  skilled  workman.  These  elements  of  the  re¬ 
formatory  feature  were  also  referred  to  by  Sir  Evelyn  Brise  in 
his  address  when  lie  mentioned  with  approval  the  European  formula 
which  we  described  as  retributory,  deterrent  and  reformatory,  and 
stated  that  any  system  which  did  not  contain  all  three  elements 
was  in  his  opinion  defective. 


—  63  — 


NECESSITY  FOR  FUNDAMENTAL  CHANGE. 

In  order  then  that  these  conditions  may  be  completely  carried 
out  a  fundamental  change  must  be  made  in  our  prison  system. 
We  believe  that  the  time  is  at  hand  not  only  when  the  contract 
system  should  be  completely  abolished,  but  that  the  men  should 
be  paid  for  the  labor  performed  at  the  penitentiary  at  the  standard 
or  union  rate  of  wages  paid  for  the  equivalent  of  free  labor  of  a 
like  character.  That  from  the  wages  received  the  prisoner  should 
be  compelled  to  pay  for  the  cost  of  his  maintenance  and  in  addition 
thereto  the  entire  loss  which  society  has  suffered  in  his  ^capture, 
trial  and  commitment.  There  would  then  not  only  he  corre¬ 
spondence  between  effort  and  reward  after  ids  conviction,  hut 
there  would  he  correspondence  between  the  injury  inflicted  and 
the  punishment  meted  out  to  the  prisoner. 

The  suggestion  of  compensation  to  prisoners  or  the  giving  of  a 
part  of  the  earnings  of  a  prisoner  to  his  family  to  aid  in  the  sup¬ 
port  of  the  family  during  his  confinement  is  of  course  no  new  idea. 

Your  Excellency  suggested  this  in  your  last  message  to  the  leg¬ 
islature.  Rev.  Pickworth,  the  chaplain  of  our  Reformatory  at  Ana- 
mosa  advocated  it  in  an  address  made  before  the  conference  of 
the  heads  of  the  institutions  in  June,  1909,  and  in  several  states 
a  small  part  of  the  earnings  of  prisoners  is  now  being  used  in  the 
support  of  the  families  of  prisoners. 

The  compensation  of  prisoners  and  the  restitution  theory  was 
suggested  by  Herbert  Spencer  as  early  as  1860. 

It  was  suggested  by  W.  D.  Howells  in  the  North  American  Re¬ 
view  of  August,  1908,  that  the  prisoners  be  paid  the  union  rate  of 
wages. 

PRACTICAL  DIFFICULTIES. 

It  must,  however,  be  perfectly  apparent  to  anyone  that  an  amount 
equivalent  to  the  union  wages  could  not  be  paid  to  the  support 
of  the  family  of  a  prisoner  or  held  for  him  until  his  release  if  he 
was  contracted  for  to  a  private  corporation  at  the  rate  of  twenty- 
five,  or  sixty,  or  even  eighty  cents  per  day,  and  it  is  also  apparent 
that  on  such  wages  there  would  be  a  negligible  amount  if  any, 
to  go  to  the  support  of  the  prisoner’s  family  over  and  above  his  cost 
of  maintenance,  hence  in  a  large  majority  of  the  states  the  actual 
amount  received  for  -prison  labor  has  furnished  the  practical  ob¬ 
jection  to  any  reform  of  this  nature,  because  it  will  readily  be 


—  64  — 


agreed  that  in  addition  to  the  enormous  cost  of  the  capture,  con¬ 
viction  and  commitment  of  prisoners,  legislatures  would  not  appro¬ 
priate  thousands  of  dollars  annually  in  order  to  determine  the  re¬ 
formatory  value  of  a  theory. 

THE  ECONOMIC  CONSIDERATION. 

.The  first  question  for  consideration  then  is  whether  the  plan 
proposed  is  possible  from  an  economic  standpoint.  This  does  not 
depend  upon  the  amount  the  state  of  Iowa  is  now  realizing  for  its 
prison  labor,  but  rather  the  actual  value  and  efficiency  of  prison 
labor  as  compared  with  free  labor  under  proper  management.  It 
is  often  stated  that  the  value  of  prison  labor  is  not  to  exceed  one- 
third  that  of  free  labor.  Evidently  that  theory  prevailed  in  Iowa 
when  the  prison  contracts  at  Fort  Madison  were  entered  into  be¬ 
cause  it  is  doubtful  if  our  state  is  receiving  one-third  of  the  scale 
of  wages  paid  free  labor,  and  it  would  also  be  admitted  that  prison¬ 
ers  at  the  New  York  jail  at  Blackwell’s  Island  do  not  earn  a 
sufficient  amount  to  pay  for  their  food  and  clothing. 

CONCLUSIONS  OF  COMMITTEE. 

This  committee,  however,  after  a  most  thorough  investigation 
into  this  question  is  of  the  opinion  that  a  man  of  approximately 
normal  health,  who  is  serving  a  sentence  at  a  penal  institution, 
is  capable  of  doing  as  much  or  even  more  physical  labor  than  a  like 
free  individual,  and  that  this  labor  may  be  made  just  as  valuable 
to  the  state  as  to  a  private  contractor.  The  man  in  the  penitentiary 
under  normal  conditions  is  enabled  to  do  as  much  or  more  because 
under  a  good  environment  and  well  regulated  system  his  energies 
would  be  greatly  conserved.  The  regular  long  hours  for  sleep  and 
rest,  a  wdiolesome,  healthful  diet  with  a  sufficient  amount  of  recre¬ 
ation,  plenty  of  fresh  air  and  the  freedom  from  any  narcotics  and 
the  impossibility  of  dissipation  are  all  conducive  to  the  highest 
efficiency  in  industrial  and  manual  labor. 

We  agree  with  Dr.  Whitin  that  “the  efficiency  of  this  labor 
(prison  labor)  varies  according  to  the  efficiency  of  the  management 
*  *  *  and  it  has  been  ably  demonstrated  that  the  convict  can  be 
made  as  efficient  as  the  free  man.” 

AYarden  Sanders  states  “There  is  not  a  mechanical  industry  in 
Iowa  that  could  not  be  transplanted  body  and  soul  into  the  Fort 
Madison  penitentiary  and  carried  on  uninterruptedly  without  de¬ 
crease  either  in  quantity  or  quality.” 


—  65  — 


lie  further  states  that  lie  has  a  few  men  now  in  the  institution 
who  are  being  employed  at  the  rate  of  $1.50  per  day,  and  that  the 
men  employing  these  prisoners  report  that  the.  efficiency  of  these 
men  is  equal  to  and  even  greater  than  that  of  free  labor. 

Dr.  Donohoe,  Superintendent  of  the  Inebriate  Hospital,  reports 
that  he  has  a  number  of  men  in  that  institution  who  are  capable  of 
doing  as  much  work  as  a  like  number  of  free,  unskilled  laborers. 

DEMONSTRABLE  PROOF. 

But  we  need  not  rely  upon  opinions  in  this  matter.  We  have 
previously  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Minnesota  state  pris¬ 
on  at  Stillwater  was  so  efficiently  managed  by  Warden  Wolfer  that 
the  institution  could  return  to  the  state  the  entire  amount  of  money 
appropriated  for  the  purchase  of  twine  machinery  and  for  the 
revolving  fund  to  carry  on  the  business  and  still  have  left  a  net 
clear  profit  of  $1,570,992,  and  we  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  report  of  the  penitentiary  at  Mississippi  shows  that  for  the 
twenty-one  months  preceding  the  report  (June  30,  1911)  that  a  net 
cash  profit  was  realized  on  the  state  farms  of  $519,159.74;  and  we 
called  attention  that  in  North  Carolina  the  net  earnings  from  the 
prison  in  1909  and  1910  were  $213,000  over  and  above  every  ex¬ 
pense  with  an  average  prison  population  of  800 ;  that  in  Louisiana 
the  penitentiary  constructed  a  sugar  refinery  on  its  state  farm  at 
a  cost  of  $420,000  all  of  which  was  paid  for  out  of  the  earnings 
of  the  penitentiary  except  $170,671  and  that  during  the  year  1911 
the  report  shows  an  excess  of  receipts  over  current  expenses  of 
$149,308.18 ;  that  in  Arkansas,  according  to  the  message  of  Gov¬ 
ernor  Donaghey,  during  the  first  year,  1909,  the  state  farm  was  op¬ 
erated  they  were  enabled  to  make  enough  money  over  and  above 
all  expenses  to  pay  $30,000  of  a  previous  debt  and  turn  back  into 
the  general  revenue  fund  $50,000;  that  in  West  Virginia  the  pen¬ 
itentiary  was  self  supporting  and  made  for  the  state  about  $35,000 
per  year  net,  and  that  the  farming  operations  netted  over  $8,000 
with  only  from  fifteen  to  thirty  men  employed  at  farm  labor;  that 
according  to  the  report  of  Warden  Jones  of  the  penitentiary  of 
Ohio,  the  net  value  of  the  labor  for  each  man  engaged  upon  the 
farm  was  $1.63  per  day  for  the  season;  that  the  Maryland  pen¬ 
itentiary  at  Baltimore,  which  is  generally  known  as  typical  of  the 
contract  labor  system  under  the  efficient  business  management  of 
Warden  Wyler,  was  enabled  to  make  an  actual  net  surplus  from 
5 


66  — 


1889  to  1911  of  $547,918.70,  and  that  in  addition  thereto  the  prison¬ 
ers  earned  and  were  paid  as  overtime  the  sum  of  $547,503.75,  mak¬ 
ing  an  aggregate  earning  over  expenses  of  $1,095,422.45,  notwith¬ 
standing  that  the  running  expenses  of  the  institution  during  the  first 
seventy-eight  years  resulted  in  a  deficit  of  $350,629.07. 

A  letter  to  the  attorney  general  from  the  warden  at  Lansing, 
Kansas,  shows  that  there  is  no  contract  labor  used  there;  that  the 
return  to  the  state  penitentiary  per  year  over  and  above  all  ex¬ 
penses  is  about  $40,000. 

In  a  letter  to  the  attorney  general  from  John  L.  McDonell,  Super¬ 
intendent  of  the  Detroit  House  of  Correction,  he  states  that  the 
city  of  Detroit  appropriated  to  the  House  of  Correction  from  1860 
to  1875  a  total  of  $189,841.36  to  cover  grounds,  buildings  and  op¬ 
erating  expenses;  that  from  1875  to  1880  the  institution  was  self- 
supporting,  and  that  since  1880  the  institution  has  made  a  net  sur¬ 
plus  of  $985,578.36  which  has  been  paid  to  the  city  in  cash;  that  the 
inventory  of  January  1,  1912,  showed  personal  property  of  various 
kinds  amounting  to  $231,543.93  and  that  the  estimated  value  of 
buildings  and  grounds  was  from  $200,000  to  $250,000  and  that  the 
prisoners  have  been  paid  up  to  January  1,  1912,  a  total  of  $78,839.19 
and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  about  one-tenth  of  the  prison  pop¬ 
ulation  is  women;  that  the  daily  average  for  the  year  was  455; 
that  more  than  sixteen  per  cent  received  during  1911  was  committed 
for  periods  of  ten  days  and  less;  that  59  per  cent  for  periods  of  30 
days  and  less ;  and  94  per  cent  for  periods  of  90  days  and  less.  See 
the  50th  annual  report  for  the  year  1911  of  the  Detroit  House  of 
Correction. 

In  the  states  where  the  profits  of  penal  institutions  are  so  large 
as  to  challenge  belief,  the  legislatures  made  sufficient  appropriations 
to  start  the  work  under  favorable  conditions,  but  we  have  evidence 
of  the  economic  value  of  prison  labor  where  the  labor  is  employed 
on  a  small  scale  and  without  costly  equipment. 

EXPERIENCE  OF  SHERIFF  TRACY. 

The  experience  of  F.  H.  Tracy,  sheriff  of  Washington  county, 
Vermont,  is  conclusive  evidence  that  while  prison  labor  under  a 
bad  system  may  not  exceed  one-third  the  value  of  free  labor,  yet 
under  a  system  where  there  is  correspondence  between  effort  and 
reward,  that  is  to  say,  where  the  prisoner  profits  just  according  to 
his  industry  and  good  conduct,  the  value  of  this  prison  labor  is 
equal  to  that  of  free  labor.  Mr.  Tracy  writes  the  attorney  general 


t—  67 


of  this  state  under  date  of  February  11,  1912,  in  response  to  an 
inquiry  as  to  what  had  been  done  in  his  county,  as  follows : 

“I  would  say  that  the  work  commenced  under  a  prison  labor 
law  passed  by  the  legislature  of  this  state  in  1906,  the  intent  of 
the  law  being  to  work  men  under  guards.  We  tried  this  method 
for  some  months  hut  with  poor  success,  the  men  doing  as  little  as 
possible  and  with  poor  results.  Finally  in  the  spring  of  that  year 
I  commenced  the  plan  of  giving  the  men  a  part  of  their  earnings, 
in  other  words,  I  gave  them  all  they  earned  above  one  dollar  per 
day ,  and  the  result  has  been  wonderful.  The  men  all  have  to  work 
as  laborers  no  matter  what  has  been  their  calling.  *  *  *  We  have 
had  many  a  man  support  his  family  from  his  earnings  while  serving 
time.  The  men  go  to  their  day’s  work  like  any  ordinary  laborer, 
sometimes  five  or  six  together  and  sometimes  alone,  working  cheer¬ 
fully  and  saving  their  wages  and  contented.  *  *  #  Surely  the  time 
is  fully  ripe  when  every  state  should  give  those  confined  a  part 
of  their  earnings.  .  This  means  better  work  and  relieves  many  in¬ 
nocent  people  of  the  disgrace  of  charity.” 

Mr.  Tracy  also  says :  ‘  ‘  Our  great  trouble  is  that  during  the  win¬ 
ter  we  have  no  work,  and  the  state  has  no  law  whereby  work  can  be 
provided.  Persons  awaiting  trial  cannot  be  worked.  #  *  *  I  am  at 
this  time  trying  to  get  a  state  farm  where  this  class  of  men  can 
be  employed  and  believe  this  will  be  a  better  solution  of  this  prob¬ 
lem.” 

This  evidence  then  conclusively  shows  the  efficiency  of  prison 
labor  whether  that  labor  is  engaged  in  manufacturing  or  farming ; 
whether  the  men  are  long  or  short  term  men,  felons  or  misdemean¬ 
ants,  and  regardless  of  any  geographical  location,  and  regardless 
of  the  color  or  nationality  of  the  prisoners. 

A  MANAGERIAL  QUESTION. 

It  is  simply  a  question  of  efficient  management  and  what  can  be 
done  in  these  institutions,  in  some  of  which  the  correspondence 
between  reward  and  effort  was  very  small,  can  without  doubt  be 
done  in  the  state  of  Iowa  under  efficient  management  if  the  legis¬ 
lature  will  appropriate  the  initial  cost  to  place  the  state  farm  in 
operation  and  a  sufficient  number  of  industries  to  furnish  employ¬ 
ment  for  every  individual  who  is  capable  of  working  during  every 
working  day  in  the  year. 

The  fact  that  Sheriff  Tracy  of  Washington  county,  Vermont, 
can  with  little  or  no  equipment  receive  almost  twice  tbe  amount 


—  68  — 


for  prison  labor  realized  in  tlie  state  of  Iowa,  and  still  let  the  men 
earn  enough  for  themselves  to  support  their  families,  ought  to  con¬ 
vince  anyone  that  there  is  abundant  opportunity  for  improvement 
in  the  matter  of  employment  of  penal  labor  in  the  state  of  Iowa,  and 
that  the  state  of  Iowa  is  now  suffering  a  very  great  economic  loss 
by  reason  of  the  present  system.  In  addition  thereto  great  injury 
is  inflicted  upon  the  families  of  the  prisoners,  and  what  is  of  par¬ 
amount  consideration  the  present  system  does  not  contain  the 
proper  reformatory  elements. 

CONTRARY  OPINION. 

We  are  aware  that  our  conclusions  herein  are  not  generally  ac¬ 
cepted,  and  that  so  eminent  an  authority  as  the  late  Hon.  Carroll  D. 
Wright,  at  the  time  he  was  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor 
in  a  paper  read  before  the  National  Press  Association  in  1899,  al¬ 
though  condemning  the  contract  system  as  lacking  the  elements  for 
reform,  stated  that  it  was  probably  the  best  for  the  treasury,  and 
further  stated  that  “without  regard  to  systems,  all  prisons  are 
run  at  a  loss  to  the  state.” 

While  Mr.  Wright  at  that  time  made  an  exhaustive  investigation, 
prisons  then  were  being  politically  managed.  We  readily  con¬ 
cede  that  if  penal  institutions  are  to  be  politically  managed  that 
there  can  be  neither  efficiency  nor  reform.  We  are  now  however, 
contending  for  a  management  wholly  in  the  interest  of  the  prison¬ 
ers,  their  families  and  the  public — the  protection  to  the  public, 
the  welfare  of  the  prisoners  and  their  families  being  the  primary 
considerations,  and  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Wright  based  upon  the  infor¬ 
mation  received  from  institutions  which  were  not  managed  in  a  busi¬ 
ness  and  scientific  way  is  of  no  value  in  the  face  of  the  overwhelm¬ 
ing  testimony  herein  set  forth. 

BASIS  FOR  REFORM. 

Conditions  are  as  favorable  in  Iowa  for  the  highest  degree  of 
prison  management  and  prison  reform  as  in  any  state  in  the  Union. 
Go  into  any  state  in  the  Union  and  inquire  into  the  cause  of  poorly 
managed  penal  institutions,  and  almost  invariably  you  receive  the 
reply,  “It  is  due  to  politics.”  Iowa,  however,  was  one  of  the  early 
states  to  adopt  the  non-partisan  board  of  control  system  thereby 
legally  eliminating  politics  from  penal  management  and  furnishing 
a  basis  for  both  a  business  and  scientific  management. 


—  69  — 


ACCOMPLISHMENT  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  CONTROL. 

We  believe  that  much  has  been  accomplished  by  our  board  of 
control  in  placing  the  outside  management  of  our  institutions  upon 
a  business  basis  and  that. this  outside  management  compares  favor¬ 
ably  with  the  management  of  any  of  the  penal  institutions  of  the 
country,  and  by  outside  management  we  refer  to  such  matters  as 
the  purchasing  of  supplies,  construction  of  new  buildings  and  mat¬ 
ters  of  that  nature.  But  we  are  also  of  the  opinion  that  very 
little  has  been  accomplished  in  so  far  as  the  inside  management 
of  our  penal  institutions  is  concerned,  and  by  inside  management 
we  refer  to  penal  labor,  penal  discipline  and  penal  reform,  and  the 
question  of  penal  labor  is  as  important  as  that  of  purchasing  of 
supplies,  and  the  construction  of  new  buildings. 

We  have  called  attention  to  the  fact  and  furnished  evidence  to 
show  that  under  a  system  giving  the  prisoner  incentive  and  hope 
by  rewarding  him  in  exact  proportion  to  his  efforts,  that  he  would 
become  twice  as  efficient  and  even  more  than  if  he  were  employed 
under  a  system  by  which  he  receives  no  compensation  and  had  no 
interest  in  the  work;  and  we  have  also  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  at  the  present  time  at  Fort  Madison  it  is  doubtful  if  our 
state  is  realizing  more  than  one-third  of  the  actual  value  of  our 
prison  labor. 

These  are  economic  considerations  of  sufficient  importance  to 
make  possible  the  plan  herein  suggested,  but  the  feasibility  of  the 
plan  becomes  the  more  apparent  when  we  consider  that  although 
the  prisoner  is  to  receive  the  standard  rate  of  wages  for  the  equiva¬ 
lent  of  like  free  labor,  from  the  wages  received  he  must  pay  for  his 
own  maintenance  and  that  a  sufficient  deduction  must  be  made  from 
his  earnings  during  the  term  of  his  confinement  to  equal  the  amount 
of  the  entire  expenses  of  his  capture,  conviction  and  commitment. 
This  item  alone  is  a  matter  of  very  great  consideration.  The  report 
of  the  board  of  parol  shows  that  for  the  year  ending  June  30, 
1910,  the  expenses  in  Iowa  of  criminal  prosecutions  exclusive  of  the 
salary  of  the  county  attorneys,  their  assistants,  and  the  expenses  of 
their  offices  and  the  proportional  salary  of  judges  of  the  district 
court  for  the  time  spent  while  presiding  in  criminal  trials  amounted 
to  $531,505.04. 

From  the  economic  standpoint  then  under  the  system  suggested 
of  employing  the  men  upon  a  large  penal  farm  and  in  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  articles  under  the  state  use  system  and  paying  the 
prisoners  the  standard  or  union  rate  of  wages  for  the  equivalent 


—  70  — 


of  a  like  amount  of  free  labor,  the  state  would  receive  for  such 
labor  under  proper  and  efficient  management  the  actual  value  of 
the  labor.  The  prisoners  would  very  greatly  increase  their  ability 
and  efficiency ;  and  during  their  confinement  their  families  would  be 
provided  for,  and  the  state  would  save  a  very  large  part  of  the  loss 
which  it  now  suffers  by  reason  of  the  expense  of  criminal  prosecu¬ 
tions. 

In  1860  Herbert  Spencer  proposed  the  indeterminate  sentence, 
the  parol,  the  compensation  and  restitution  theory.  It  has  re¬ 
quired  a  half  century  for  the  world  to  become  sufficiently  civilized 
to  adopt  the  indeterminate  sentence  and  the  parol,  and  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  compensating  the  prisoner  and  requiring  him  to  pay  for 
his  own  maintenance  and  in  a  measure  make  restitution  is  just  now 
receiving  consideration. 

Practical  objections  have  been  made  to  any  law  or  any  system 
compelling  a  prisoner  to  make  absolute  restitution  to  the  person 
injured.  It  would,  however,  be  entirely  proper  for  the  board  of 
parol  to  consider  the  ability  and  the  disposition  of  a  prisoner  to 
make  restitution  as  one  of  the  elements  in  determining  whether  the 
prisoner  was  then  entitled  to  a  parol;  but  the  requiring  of  a  pris¬ 
oner  to  pay  for  his  own  maintenance  while  at  the  institution  and 
requiring  him  to  pay  also  for  the  cost  of  his  capture,  conviction  and 
commitment  is  founded  upon  such  absolute  justice  that  there  can 
be  no  real  objections,  assuming  that  the  prisoner  is  approximately 
normal  physically  and  mentally. 

The  costs  are  now  taxed  to  the  prisoner  but  they  are  seldom,  if 
ever,  paid,  although  it  occasionally  happens  that  after  the  pris¬ 
oner  is  released  he  is  sometimes  harassed  by  the  levying  of  an 
execution  for  the  costs  in  question.  A  very  great  gain,  however, 
would  result  both  to  the  prisoner  and  to  society  by  reason  of  the 
state  deducting  a  sufficient  amount  from  the  prisoner’s  wages 
during  the  term  of  his  confinement  to  equal  the  cost  of  his  prose¬ 
cution.  Under  the  present  system  where  the  prisoner  sees  no 
relation  between  the  amount  of  costs  he  incurs  and  the  character 
of  his  punishment  and  the  length  of  time  served,  it  is  common 
knowledge  that,  in  a  large  majority  of  cases,  no  matter  how 
guilty  an  offender  may  be,  and  seemingly  without  regard  to  the 
amount  of  evidence  of  his  guilt,  he  secures  a  lawyer,  pleads  not 
guilty  and  takes  advantage  of.  every  opportunity  and  every  tech¬ 
nicality  which  a  resourceful  lawyer  can  suggest,  in  order  to  defeat 
the  ends  of  justice ;  but  at  the  end  of  litigation,  which  is  sometimes 


—  71 


carried  on  for  a  period  of  years,  after  the  supreme  court  has  final¬ 
ly  spoken  the  last  word  and  denied  a  rehearing,  the  defendant 
then  immediately  confesses  his  guilt,  expresses  deep  regret  for  his 
offense,  promises  immediate  reformation,  secures  the  best  lawyer 
that  he  can  employ,  and  in  addition  thereto  puts  in  motion  as 
much  political  influence  as  he  can  command  in  order  to  secure  an 
immediate  pardon  or  parol,  and  the  county  and  state  pay  the 
cost  of  his  capture,  conviction  and  commitment,  including  all 
the  costs  of  the  litigation. 

We  do  not  wish  to  cast  reflection  upon  the  eleventh  hour  ref¬ 
ormation  or  repentance  of  any  offender,  but  we  do  believe  that 
if  the  offender  knew  that  in  the  event  he  was  finally  convicted  he 
would  be  compelled  to  pay  all  the  costs  which  he  had  incurred 
that  his  reformation  would  come  at  the  first  hour  instead  of  at  the 
eleventh  hour.  Undoubtedly  a  very  large  number  of  persons  com¬ 
mitting  crime  who  contest  the  matter  as  long  as  there  is  a  possi¬ 
bility  of  escape,  would  plead  guilty  at  the  outset,  which  would 
in  itself  result  in  a  very  great  saving  to  the  state,  and  it  would 
also  relieve  the  courts  from  being  overburdened  with  litigation 
and  leave  ample  opportunity  for  the  disposal  and  consideration 
of  civil  matters.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  criminal  matters 
have  the  preference  in  courts  over  all  civil  matters,  no  matter  how 
great  the  importance  of  a  civil  suit  may  be,  and  this  of  course  is 
clearly  correct  because  the  law  regards  human  rights  above  prop¬ 
erty  rights,  but  under  the  system  proposed  no  injury  would  be 
done  to  an  offender  by  requiring  him  to  pay  the  actual  costs  which, 
he  had  incurred  and  incidentally  a  very  great  good  would  result 
to  society  by  so  doing. 

THE  RELATION  BETWEEN  CONVICTIONS  AND  PUNISHMENT. 

We  believe  there  is  another  vital  connection  between  the  admin¬ 
istration  of  punishment  meted  out  to  criminals  and  court  procedure 
which  is  of  great  importance,  viz:  that  the  character  and  degree 
of  punishment  to  be  administered  bears  a  close  relation  to  the  num¬ 
ber  of  convictions.  Some  judges  in  instructing  the  jury  set  forth 
the  nature  of  the  punishment  which  will  follow  as  a  result  of  con¬ 
viction.  Other  judges  avoid  doing  this  especially  if  the  punish¬ 
ment  seems  harsh  and  severe  because  of  the  effect  it  would  have 
upon  the  jury.  It  is  well  known  that  the  jurors  in  their  jury  room 
discuss  the  length  and  character  of  the  punishment  to  be  meted 
out  to  an  offender  in  case  of  a  conviction,  and  that  they  also  con- 


—  72  — 


sider  the  effect  a  conviction  will  have  upon  the  family  of  a  de¬ 
fendant  especially  if  a  wife  or  children  will  be  left  without  means 
of  support. 

ACQUITTALS  DUE  TO  SYMPATHY. 

Jurors  are  supposed  to  follow  the  instructions  of  the  court  and 
consider  alone  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  defendant  leaving 
it  to  the  court  to  prescribe  the  punishment  as  by  law  provided, 
but  every  prosecuting  attorney  knows  that  the  majority  of  verdicts 
are  determined  by  the  sympathies  of  the  jurors.  Therefore  they 
know  that  unless  they  can  adduce  sufficient  evidence  to  remove  the 
natural  sympathy,  which  some  jurors  always  have,  there  is  but 
little  probability  of  conviction.  The  criminal  lawyer  understands 
this  when  he  has  the  wife,  the  little  children  or  the  gray-haired 
mother  in  the  court  room  and  as  close  to  the  jurors  as  possible, 
and  these  methods  are  followed  today  because  of  the  fact  that  the 
old  theory  of  vindictive  punishment  is  still  prevalent  in  the  minds 
of  the  people  and  because  jurors  feel  that  our  penal  institutions 
are  at  least  to  some  extent  torture  chambers.  The  very  large  num¬ 
ber  of  acquittals  in  this  country  due  to  verdicts  based  on  sympathy 
and  the  technicalities  of  the  law  furnished  the  basis  for  President 
Taft  to  say:  “The  administration  of  criminal  law  in  this  country 
is  a  disgrace  to  our  civilization.” 

EFFECT  ON  JURORS. 

If,  however,  it  was  known  by  our  people  that  we  could  do  for 
young  men  who  were  committed  to  Anamosa  what  is  being  done 
at  the  reformatories  at  Mansfield  and  Elmira,  or  that  an  offender, 
in  the  event  of  conviction,  would  be  sentenced  to  a  penal  farm 
where  he  would  be  taught  the  principles  of  scientific  farming,  where 
he  would  be  paid  for  his  labor  in  accordance  with  its  value,  be 
compelled  to  support  himself,  pay  the  costs  resulting  from  his 
offense,  and  have  sufficient  to  support  those  dependent  upon  him, 
if  any ;  if  not,  to  lay  by  a  bank  account  to  be  used  upon  his  release, 
and  receive  moral  and  mental  training,  we  believe  that  the  ver¬ 
dict  founded  upon  sympathy  would  be  the  exception  instead  of  the 
rule  and  that  jurors  would  then  do  what  they  now  agree  but  fail 
to  do,  viz :  pass  upon  the  one  question  of  the  guilt  or  innocence 
of  the  defendant. 


—  73  — 


INCEPTION  OF  TECHNICALITIES. 

But  the  beneficial  results  would  not  be  confined  alone  to  jurors. 
The  influence  upon  the  courts  would  be  equally  as  great.  The  tech¬ 
nicalities  of  the  law  which  are  now  being  so  universally  condemned 
were  conceived  by  judges  and  courts  at  a  time  when  it  was  neces¬ 
sary  to  protect  the  individual  against  the  state,  and  at  a  time  when 
over  150  offenses  were  punishable  by  death.  Their  inception  was 
prompted  by  humanity  and  we  believe  there  has  always  been  a 
substantial  relation  between  the  technicalities  of  court  procedure 
and  the  kind  and  character  of  the  punishment  inflicted,  but  we 
cannot  believe  that  under  a  just,  humane  and  reformatory  system 
of  punishment,  any  court  in  Christendom  could  be  found  to  make 
a  pronouncement  so  astounding  as  that  made  by  the  supreme  court 
of  Missouri  in  the  case  of  State  vs.  Campbell,  decided  in  1908,  210 
Mo.  page  202,  in  which  the  supreme  court  reversed  a  decision  of 
the  lower  court  resulting  in  the  discharge  of  the  defendant  charged 
with  a  serious  offense,  because  the  indictment  failed  to  allege  that 
the  offense  was  committed  against  “the  peace  and  dignity  of  the 
state  of  Missouri”  but  only  alleged  that  it  was  committed  against 
“the  peace  and  dignity  of  state  of  Missouri.” 

EFFECT  UPON  COURTS. 

While  such  a  decision  as  the  one  in  question  is  preposterous  and 
capable  of  absolutely  no  defense,  it  is  important  to  realize  that 
such  decisions  in  the  beginning  were  founded  on  sympathy,  and 
that  under  a  reformatory  system  of  punishment  the  strong  public 
condemnation  wThich  will  follow  a  decision  of  this  nature  will  in 
itself  go  far  to  prevent  a  recurrence  of  such  a  decision. 

DETERRENT  EFFECT. 

But  a  still  further  benefit  would  ensue  because  one  of  the  pur¬ 
poses  of  punishment  is  its  deterrent  effect  upon  others.  The  deter¬ 
rent  effect,  however,  is  governed  very  largely  by  the  certainty  of 
punishment  which  follows  the  commission  of  a  crime.  Therefore 
the  reducing  the  number  of  verdicts  based  upon  sympathy  and  the 
lessening  the  number  of  acquittals  due  to  technicalities  of  the  law 
would  necessarily  increase  the  certainty  of  punishment  and  cor¬ 
respondingly  increase  its  deterrent  effect  and  this  certainty  of  pun¬ 
ishment  coupled  with  promptness  of  administration  will  have  a  far 
greater  restraining  influence  than  the  fear  of  cruel  treatment. 


74 


EFFECT  UPON  THE  PRISONER. 

Important  as  these  considerations  may  be,  the  effect  upon  the 
prisoner  himself  would  be  even  greater.  The  strong  disciplinary 
and  reformatory  benefits  to  be  derived  from  a  system  of  this  kind 
cannot  be  denied. 

Prison  officials  of  long  experience,  where  prisoners  are  compen¬ 
sated  for  their  work,  report  the  highest  disciplinary  value  by  the 
giving  and  withholding  of  benefits  and  rewards  to  prisoners. 

The  head  of  a  large  penal  institution  told  the  attorney  general 
that  he  did  not  govern  the  inmates  by  indicting  punishment  but 
by  giving  and  withholding  favors  and  rewards,  and  that  he  ob¬ 
tained  the  very  best  results  by  following  this  method;  but  as  pre¬ 
viously  pointed  out,  this  method  could  not  be  followed  under  the 
conditions  which  now  obtain  at  Ft.  Madison. 

PAYMENT  OF  PRISONERS. 

It  has  been  urgd  that  prisoners  should  not  be  paid  compensa¬ 
tion  as  wages,  but  that  a  part  of  their  earnings  should  be  given 
to  them  or  their  families  wholly  as  a  gratuity;  that  a  prisoner 
should  not  be  permitted  to  feel  that  he  had  a  claim  against  the 
state.  It  matters  but  little  what  term  is  used  if  the  prisoner  is 
to  be  rewarded  for  his  efforts.  While  it  is  well  known  that  no 
individual  could  sue  the  state,  it  is  not  proposed  that  a  law  be 
passed  definitely  fixing  the  amount  of  the  compensation  or  gratuity 
to  be  given  to  the  prisoner.  We  are  merely  suggesting  a  plan  or 
rule  for  guidance  which  should  be  approximated  as  nearly  as  cir¬ 
cumstances  will  permit. 

In  order  that  the  matter  of  compensating  prisoners  in  some  form 
may  be  of  the  highest  disciplinary  and  reformatory  value,  the-  be¬ 
stowing  of  the  same  must  be  left  to  the  warden  and  the  board  of 
parol,  the  amount  to  depend  upon  the  skill,  efficiency  and  good 
conduct  of  the  prisoner. 

THE  LEGISLATIVE  PART. 

What  the  legislature  should  do  is  to  make  an  appropriation  for 
the  purchase  of  a  farm  and  the  establishment  of  a  sufficient  num¬ 
ber  of  industries  so  that  every  prisoner  could  be  employed  at  prof¬ 
itable,  productive  labor  during  each  working  day  of  the  year  and 
do  the  full  amount  of  work  which  he  is  capable  of  doing,  and  at 
the  same  time  preserve  his  health  and  give  such  attention  to  the 


—  75  — 


training  of  his  mind  as  is  conducive  to  his  reformation.  This  would 
enable  the  institution  to  be  operated  under  favorable  economic 
conditions.  The  legislature  should  also  authorize  the  payment  to 
the  prisoner  either  as  wages  or  gratuity  an  amount  not  to  exceed 
the  compensation  paid  for  the  equivalent  of  like  service  for  free 
labor,  leaving  it  to  the  warden  and  board  of  parol  to  determine 
the  exact  amount  to  be  paid  to  each  individual.  The  board  of 
parol  and  the  warden  would  then  require  the  prisoner  to  pay  for 
the  cost  of  his  maintenance  and  would  also  in  so  far  as  practicable 
deduct  a  certain  amount  from  the  wages  of  each  prisoner  during 
the  time  of  his  confinement  to  pay  for  the  entire  costs  incurred 
by  reason  of  the  commission  of  the  offense. 

AN  ADMINISTRATIVE  MATTER. 

The  rewarding  of  prisoners  for  their  efforts  is  not  a  legislative 
matter  to  be  definitely  fixed  by  law,  but  it  is  an  administrative 
matter  to  be  handled  by  administrative  officers  within  certain 
definite  limits  prescribed  by  the  legislature. 

Precisely  the  same  reasons  which  induced  congress  to  leave  to 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  the  function  of  fixing  rates 
should  govern  in  this  case,  because  of  the  necessity  for  elasticity 
and  the  need  of  taking  into  consideration  the  peculiar  circum¬ 
stances  and  conditions  in  each  case.  The  disciplinary  and  reform¬ 
atory  elements  require  that  it  be  considered  an  administrative  mat¬ 
ter,  the  economic  side  of  the  question  would  further  require  it, 
and  there  is  the  additional  reason  due  to  the  fact  that  a  consider¬ 
able  number  of  the  prisoners  are  physically  and  morally  defective, 
and  hence  due  allowance  must  be  made  in  each  case  after  the  exact 
condition  and  ability  of  the  prisoner  in  question  is  determined. 

THE  RECORDS  OF  THE  INSTITUTION. 

We  have  previously  called  attention  to  the  necessity  of  so  keep¬ 
ing  the  records  as  to  know  the  exact  physical  and  mental  condi¬ 
tion  of  every  prisoner,  and  these  records  should  also  show  the  ca¬ 
pacity  and  ability  of  the  prisoner  for  labor  and  the  kind  and  char¬ 
acter  best  suited  to  the  prisoner.  The  records  should  show  the 
aggregate  labor  efficiency  of  the  institution  using  as  a  basis  the 
standard  amount  of  labor  performed  during  a  working  day  by 
free  labor. 


—  76  — 


DIVISION  OF  EXPENSE. 

The  amount  of  expense  incurred  by  reason  of  a  given  per  cent  of 
the  total  number  of  prisoners  being  below  normal  should  be  charged 
to  the  state  under  a  separate  account.  There  is  no  more  reason 
for  a  normal  man  in  the  penitentiary  being  required  to  sup¬ 
port  a  defective  in  the  institution  incapable  of  labor  than  there 
is  to  require  him  to  support  a  defective  incapable  of  labor  outside 
the  institution,  hence  the  necessity  of  the  prison  records  showing 
the  aggregate  number  of  men  capable  of  performing  a  full  day’s 
labor  and  the  exact  percentage  of  the  total  number  of  prisoners 
incapable  of  performing  labor. 

The  expense  incident  to  mental  and  moral  training,  including 
the  cost  of  teachers,  books,  chaplain  and  matters  of  that  nature 
should  likewise  be  charged  to  the  state.  The  governor,  the  board 
of  parol,  the  general  assembly  and  the  public  would  then  know 
whether  the  institution  was  being  efficiently  managed,  whether 
the  prisoners  were  performing  the  proper  amount  of  labor,  and 
whether  matters  of  education  and  moral  training  were  being  neg¬ 
lected.  There  would  then  be  no  temptation  for  the  board  of  con¬ 
trol  and  the  warden  to  sacrifice  the  welfare  of  the  men  in  order 
to  make  a  good  financial  showing.  There  is  no  large,  well  managed 
business  concern  but  what  has  a  system  of  cost  accounting  and 
bookkeeping  along  the  lines  herein  suggested. 

SUMMARY. 

We  know  the  natural  hesitancy  there  will  be  in  establishing 
a  new  penal  farm  with  allied  industries,  but  considering  that  a 
worse  site  for  the  location  of  a  state  institution  could  not  have 
been  selected  than  the  particular  spot  chosen  at  Ft.  Madison,  and 
considering  the  impossibility  of  ever  furnishing  the  proper  means 
of  classification  and  segregation  necessary  to  any  highly  reforma¬ 
tory  methods,  and  the  unquestioned  evil  effects  which  result  from 
confining  prisoners  of  all  classes  in  one  building,  and  considering 
that  other  states  are  now  operating  as  many  as  six  and  seven 
penal  farms  and  actually  making  a  net  profit  of-  over  a  half  million 
dollars  within  a  period  of  less  than  two  years,  and  the  overwhelm¬ 
ing  testimony  of  the  economic  value  of  penal  labor  used  under 
favorable  conditions  and  under  a  system  which  gives  the  prisoner 
incentive  and  hope,  and  considering  the  undoubted  benefits  which 
would  follow  as  a  result  of  proper  co-operation  given  to  a  penal 


* 


—  77  — 


farm  by  our  Agricultural  College,  and  the  far-reaching  effect  upon 
society  by  adopting  the  most  scientific  and  reformatory  methods 
as  a  punishment  for  crime,  we  believe  that  our  state  cannot  af¬ 
ford  to  continue  a  policy  of  indifference,  ignore  what  other  states 
are  doing  and  wait  until  the  price  of  land  becomes  so  high  as  to 
make  the  proposal  prohibitive  and  thus  permanently  commit  our¬ 
selves  to  a  policy  of  reaction  which  casts  reflection  upon  the  char¬ 
acter  and  culture  of  our  citizenship. 


THE  JAIL  SYSTEM 


NECESSITY  FOR  CONSIDERATION. 

While  your  letter  requesting  an  investigation  directed  attention 
alone  to  conditions  at  Ft.  Madison,  and  while  the  report  has  al¬ 
ready  been  unduly  extended,  we  feel  that  the  general  conditions 
surrounding  our  jail  system  in  this  state  should  be  called  to  your 
attention  to  the  end  that  you  may  give  the  matter  due  consid¬ 
eration  before  the  convening  of  the  next  general  assembly  and  make 
such  recommendations  to  the  legislature  as  seem  to  you  necessary 
and  proper. 

Social  workers  and  penologists  are  now  realizing  that  it  is  more 
important  to  keep  people  out  of  the  penitentiary  than  to  provide 
a  reformatory  method  of  treatment  in  the  event  that  they  are 
confined  to  the  penitentiary,  and  lienee  the  recent  spread  of  ju¬ 
venile  laws,  the  suspended  sentence,  and  probation,  the  parol,  the 
conditional  pardon,  the  opportunities  for  paying  fines  on  the  install¬ 
ment  plan,  the  agricultural  and  industrial  schools  for  youthful  of¬ 
fenders,  and  a  complete  change  in  the  method  of  dealing  with  even 
adult  misdemeanants. 


BASIS  OF  REFORM. 

We  have  commenced  to  realize  that  for  a  number  of  years  we 
were  reforming  at  the  wrong  end,  that  the  reform  should  commence 
at  the  bottom,  and  the  District  of  Columbia,  the  federal  government 
and  Superintendent  Whittaker  have  this  object  in  view  in  the  oper¬ 
ation  of  the  federal  farm  at  Occoquan  as  a  means  of  punishment  for 
persons  convicted  of  offenses  less  than  felony ;  hence  we  believe  that 
the  necessity  for  a  radical  change  in  the  method  of  punishing  misde¬ 
meanants,  or  those  convicted  of  crime  who  may  not  be  committed  to 
the  penitentiary  or  reformatory,  is  of  even  greater  importance  than 
the  necessity  for  a  change  in  our  penal  system  at  our  penitentiary 
and  reformatory. 


—  79  - 


DISGRACE  OF  OUR  JAIL  SYSTEM. 

Whereas  the  management  of  our  penitentiary  and  reformatory 
is  not  up  to  the  standard  of  some  of  the  leading  penal  in¬ 
stitutions  of  the  country,  our  jail  system  is  a  disgrace  to  the 
state,  and  except  as  a  place  of  detention  for  persons  awaiting  trial, 
there  is  not  a  single  excuse  or  justification  for  its  existence.  What 
is  true  of  Iowa  is  generally  true  over  the  United  States.  Represen¬ 
tatives  from  every  country  in  the  world  have  journeyed  to  America 
to  study  the  reformatory  systems  in  use  at  Elmira,  Mansfield, 
Pontiac,  the  George  Junior  Republic,  and  the  Agricultural  and  In¬ 
dustrial  School  at  Industry,  New  York,  but  the  jail  system  in 
America  is  everywhere  looked  upon  as  an  inexcusable  relic  of 
barbarism. 

COMPARISON  OF  IOWA  WITH  GEORGE  JUNIOR  REPUBLIC. 

When  the  attorney  general  visited  the  George  Junior  Republic, 
he  found  that  the  “citizens”  or  inmates  who  were  under  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  ninety  per  cent  of  whom  were  incorrigibles,  were 
living  under  a  self  government.  He  found  that  they  not  only 
made  their  own  laws,  but  that  they  elected  their  own  officers,  ex¬ 
ecutive,  legislative  and  judicial,  and  imposed  their  own  punish¬ 
ments.  They  had  their  judges,  their  attorney  general,  courts  and 
jurors  and  their  jail;  but  he  found  that  there  was  not  a  person 
committed  to  jail  for  an  offense  even  if  only  committed  for  a  day 
ivlio  was  not  profitably  engaged  in  productive  labor.  At  the  same 
time  in  the  state  of  Iowa,  there  was  not  a  person  who  was  com¬ 
mitted  to  our  county  jails  as  a  punishment  for  crime  who  was 
engaged  in  any  real  productive  labor. 

The  significance  of  the  comparison  of  our  jail  system  with  that 
of  youthful  incorrigibles  becomes  greater  when  we  consider  that 
enforced  idleness  and  solitary  confinement  tends  to  depravity, 
imbecility  and  insanity,  as  was  previously  pointed  out,  and  when 
we  further  consider  the  economic  loss  due  to  such  a  system,  and 
the  further  wrong  against  the' prisoner’s  family  by  reason  of  be¬ 
ing  deprived  of  any  means  of  support. 

ADMONITION  OF  PRESIDENT  OF  INTERNATIONAL  PRISON 

CONGRESS. 

The  last  admonition  given  to  America  by  the  new  president 
of  the  International  Prison  Congress  before  leaving  for  Europe 
was  put  in  the  form  of  a  request.  He  said :  ‘  ‘  Let  me  ask  that 


—  80  — 


from  your  great  fund  of  heart  and  self-sacrifice  you  give  consid¬ 
eration  to  the  thousands  of  petty  offenders  now  passing  through 
your  city  and  county  jails  in  such  appalling  numbers.” 

MOST  VICIOUS  AGENCY. 

Dr.  Henderson,  from  whom  we  have  quoted  so  often,  says  in  his 
introduction  to  Outdoor  Labor  for  Convicts:  ‘‘The  whole  ques¬ 
tion  of  occupation  of  convicts  is  connected  with  that  of  the  re¬ 
form  of  our  jail  system,  which,  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  all 
competent  students  is  the  most  vicious  and  corrupt  agency  con¬ 
nected  with  our  penal  system.  The  essential  evil  of  the  ordinary 
county  jail  does  not  lie  merely  in  its  unsanitary  condition,  bad 
as  that  often  is,  for  this  can  he  corrected  by  health  authorities. 
The  worst  of  the  jail  method  is  that  it  involves  idleness  and  base 
companionship.  It  is  idleness  which'  corrupts  young  men  especial¬ 
ly  when  the  unoccupied  time  is  spent  with  depraved  company.  #  *  * 
There  is  a  large  class  of  low  bred,  degenerate,  alcoholic  rounders 
who  are  now  required  to  serve  short  sentences  for  drunkenness 
or  disorder  and  who  are  made )  worse  by  the  treatment  given  them 
under  present  laws.” 

CONDITION  OF  OUR  JAILS. 

It  is  true  as  Dr.  Henderson  says  that  the  unsanitary  condition 
can  be  corrected,  hut  it  is  also  true  that  up  to  this  date  in  a 
very  large  number  of  cities  and  counties  in  this  state  it  has  not 
been  corrected.  The  committee  has  received  reports  concerning 
the  city  and  county  jails  over  the  entire  state  and  in  none  of  them 
is  there  provided  any  real  form  of  productive  labor,  and  the  jail 
which  is  sanitary,  admits  plenty  of  sunshine  and  in  which  there 
is  any  proper  segregation  of  prisoners,  is  the  rare  exception  and 
not  the  rule. 


LACK  OF  SEGREGATION. 

In  one  county  we  find  the  jail  to  be  “small,  poor  and  dirty.” 
In  another  county  it  is  reported  that  “The  jail  is  in  a  basement 
and  damp,  although  the  sheriff  does  the  best  he  can.”  In  another 
county  it  is  reported  that  the  jail  is  not  even  a  safe  place  for  keeping 
prisoners,  and  in  a  very  large  number  of  counties  it  is  reported 
that  there  is  no  separate  apartment  for  women  and  no  means  of 
segregation  between  first  offenders  and  the  most  hardened  crim- 


—  81  — 


inals  except  such  as  is  afforded  by  confinement  in  the  cell,  and 
this  admits  of  course  of  constant  communication.  One  county  at- 
tornej^  reports  “The  only  means  of  separating  ivomen  and  minors 
from  hardened  criminals  is  a  steel  lattice  icorh  partition.” 

One  county  attorney  reports  that  the  sewerage  is  in  had  condition. 

THE  SHERIFF. 

In  addtion  to  the  evidence  that  a  number  of  jails  are  dirty, 
unsanitary,  unsafe,  and  that  there  is  no  proper  means  of  segrega¬ 
tion  of  minors,  first  offenders  and  even  women,  this  committee 
lias  convincing  evidence  that  in  some  counties  intoxicating  liquors 
and  various  forms  of  dope  are  permitted  to  be  passed  to  the  pris¬ 
oners. 

The  report  comes  from  one  county  within  the  past  two  years 
that  one  sheriff  permitted  prisoners  to  go  outside  the  prison  walls 
and  secure  whisky  and  become  intoxicated.  In  at  least  two  other 
counties  of  the  state  we  have  conclusive  evidence  that  the  sheriffs 
were  themselves  guilty  of  intoxication,  gambling  and  visiting  as¬ 
signation  houses,  and  to  the  personal  knowledge  of  members  of 
the  committee,  one  sheriff  permitted  prisoners  to  spend  a  night 
of  enjoyment  if  not  criminal  dissipation  in  another  state. 

In  still  another  county  of  the  state  where  a  husband  and  wife 
were  confined  charged  with  the  commission  of  a  felony,  the  sheriff 
permitted  the  husband  to  enter  his  wife’s  apartment.  Both  pris¬ 
oners  were  convicted  and  given  a  fifteen  year  sentence  and  are 
now  in  confinement,  but  according  to  the  testimony  of  both  pris¬ 
oners  as  a  result  of  the  improper  permission  of  their  being  together, 
the  woman  is  now  pregnant,  and  unless  released  will  give  birth 
to  a  child  within  the  prison  walls. 

A  prisoner  gives  evidence  that  in  still  another  county  the  sheriff 
and  jailer  permitted  sporting  women  to  enter  his  cell  for  his  grat¬ 
ification. 

In  addition  to  this  we  have  it  from  the  warden  of  the  peniten¬ 
tiary  that  prisoners  are  sometimes  brought  to  the  penitentiary  in 
an  intoxicated  condition  by  the  sheriffs  or  deputies  in  charge. 

THE  FINDINGS  OF  THE  COURT. 

This  testimony  is  in  exact  accord  with  the  conclusions  of  our 
supreme  court, 
fi 


—  82  — 


In  the  case  of  State  v.  "Wialsh,  109  Iowa,  on  page  24  our  supreme 
court  made  the  following  finding: 

“The  evidence  tended  to  show  that  the  defendant  (sheriff)  while 
in  Cedar  Rapids,  having  in  his  custody  a  prisoner  sentenced  to 
serve  a  term  of  seven  and  a  half  years  in  the  penitentiary  at  Ana- 
mosa,  and  on  the  way  to  that  place,  became  intoxicated,  and  al¬ 
lowed  the  prisoner  his  liberty  for  about  thirty  hours.  If  witnesses 
are  to  be  believed,  he  drank  whisky  from  the  prisoner’s  bottle, 
and  partook  of  beer  with  him  at  four  different  saloons  in  succession, 

leaving  him  at  the  last  one  while  he  ( the  sheriff )  visited  the  res- 

* 

idence  of  a  woman  ivho  has  since ,  at  the  suggestion  of  th&  police , 
departed  the  city.” 

We  do  not  wish  to  cast  reflection  upon  the  sheriffs  of  the  state 
as  a  class.  Edmund  Burke  said  that  “You  cannot  indict  a  whole 
race.”  It  is  equally  true  that  you  cannot  indict  a  whole  class. 

The  committee  knows  that  there  are  a  large  number  of  sheriffs 
in  the  state  who  are  deserving  of  the  very  highest  commendation, 
who  are  rendering  excellent  service  to  the  state,  who  have  a  high 
sense  of  their  duty  and  who  are  honest,  capable  and  efficient,  but 
truth  requires  us  to  say  that  there  are  also  sheriffs  in  the  state 
who  are  neither  capable  nor  efficient  and  who  are  utterly  unfit 
to  have  charge  of  the  reformation  of  anyone,  much  less  minors, 
first  offenders  and  women.  It  must  be  perfectly  obvious  to  anyone 
who  has  given  the  matter  any  consideration  whatever  that  more 
than  one  sheriff  is  elected  without  any  other  qualification  or  recom¬ 
mendation  except  that  he  is  a  “good  fellow.”  Even  people  who 
believe  in  civic  decency  usually  give  but  little  consideration  to 
the  office  of  sheriff  and  generally  vote  the  party  ticket  or  often  per¬ 
mit  their  votes  to  be  controlled  by  social  and  business  reasons, 
whereas  the  people  who  are  evil-minded,  or  who  for  any  reason 
do  not  want  the  law  enforced  or  have  any  special  interest  to  serve, 
disregard  political  considerations  entirely  and  vote  for  the  man 
who  “minds  his  own  business”  and  who  is  a  “good  fellow.” 

THE  FEE  SYSTEM. 

But  aside  from  this  obvious  fact,  the  fee  system  connected  with 
our  jail  system  is  absolutely  indefensible  and  should  be  abolished 
by  the  next  general  assembly. 

Mr.  Paul  U.  Kellogg,  in  reporting  the  proceedings  of  the  In¬ 
ternational  Prison  Congress  at  Washington,  in  the  Survey  of  No- 


—  83  — 


vember  5,  1910,  in  speaking  of  this  question  states  that  the  im¬ 
prisonment  of  all  persons  awaiting  trial  and  those  under  sentence 
for  minor  offenses  has  been  left  in  the  hands  of  counties  and  states, 
and  says :  ‘  ‘  The  fees  to  be  gained  by  their  arrest,  detention,  feeding 
and  incarceration  during  the  period  of  sentence,  have  made  the 
sheriff’s  office  the  center  of  county  politics  and  in  some  localities, 
a  more  lucrative  post  than  that  of  president  of  the  United  States.” 

At  least  one  paper  in  this  city  set  forth  in  detail  the  profit  in¬ 
curring  to  the  sheriff  by  reason  of  feeding  prisoners.  A  system 
whereby  a  sheriff  has  a  distinct,  personal,  financial  gain  in  the 
arrest  and  confinement  of  prisoners,  and  no  interest  whatsoever 
in  their  reformation  is  vicious  and  capable  of  no  defense. 

THE  STATE’S  BUSINESS. 

That  being  true,  we  agree  with  Prof.  Henderson  that  mere  <(  petty 
tinkering  with  the  present  methods  is  absurd  and  is  waste  of  time , 
money  and  manhood,”  and  that  ((this  evil  cannot  be  corrected 
so  long  as  the  ordinary  place  for  serving  short  sentences  is  a  county 
institute.  The  jail  should  be  reserved  simply  for  prisoners  pre¬ 
sumably  innocent,  but  held  for  trial.  A  convicted  person  should  at 
once  be  sent  to  a  district  prison  of  some  kind  and  placed  under 
state  control  until  he  is  restored  to  freedom.” 

And  we  also  agree  with  Sir  Evelyn  Ruggles  Brise  that  “Amer¬ 
ica  cannot  help  Europe  solve  the  problem  of  dealing  with  mis- 
demeants  until  w^e  recognize  that  the  petty  offender  is  as  much 
a  matter  for  state  concern  and  control  as  the  man  under  long  and 
indeterminate  sentence.  ’ ’ 

Abundance  of  evidence  from  our  own  state  which  is  within  the 
possession  and  knowledge  of  this  committee  makes  it  absolutely 
imperative  that  ive  should  entirely  eliminate  the  county  jail  in 
so  far  as  it  is  used  as  a  place  of  confinement  or  punishment  of  a 
person  convicted  of  crime,  and  that  in  all  such  instances  the  of¬ 
fender  should,  in  the  event  that  ho  has  violated  a  state  law  and 
se?itenced  to  confinement,  be  sent  to  some  district  penal  institu¬ 
tion  under  the  absolute  jurisdiction  and  control  of  the  state. 

In  the  thirty-third  general  assembly,  the  legislature  of  Iowa  rec¬ 
ognized  this  fundamental  principle :  that  the  state  which  enacted 
a  law  was  responsible  for  its  enforcement,  and  that  there  could 
never  be  any  uniformity  or  substantial  law  enforcement  in  the  state 
of  Iowa  until  legislation  was  passed  recognizing  this  principle,  and 
to  that  end  a  series  of  acts  was  passed  by  the  thirty-third  general 


—  84  — 


assembly  embodying  these  principles  and  placing  it  within  the  power 
of  the  attorney  general  and  governor  to  see  that  the  law  is  enforced 
in  every  part  of  the  state. 

The  next  step  is  equally  imperative.  The  state  that  enacts  a  law 
is  not  only  responsible  for  its  enforcement  but  it  is  responsible  for 
its  administration.  If  it  is  the  duty  of  the  state  to  enforce  the  law, 
it  is  equally  the  duty  of  the  state  to  administer  the  punishment  to  be 
meted  out  for  persons  who  violate  the  state  law,  and  so  long  as 
the  punishment  is  inflicted  by  local  authorities,  the  nature  of  the 
punishment  will  bei  as  varying  as  the  number  and  character  of  the 
jailers  and  sheriffs  in  charge  of  the  prisoners. 

When  a  state  in  the  passage  of  a  law  causes  a  man  to  be  deprived 
of  his  liberty,  it  is  responsible  for  the  man’s  phyical  and  moral 
welfare,  and  therefore  the  state  should  never  surrender  jurisdiction 
over  one  of  its  subjects  whether  he  be  convicted  of  a  felony  or  a 
misdemeanor. 

For  a  very  able  and  detailed  account  of  the  abuse  of  the  system 
of  delegating  the  punishment  to  county  authorities,  see  the  article  of 
A.  J.  McKelloway,  entitled  “The  Prison  Systems  of  the  Southern 
States  of  America,”  in  Penal  and  Reformatory  Institutions,  the 
Russell  Sage  Foundation  Series. 

All  prison  authorities,  penologists  and  prison  administrators  are 
agreed  that  the  state  alone  should  administer  punishment  for  the 
violation  of  state  laws. 

THE  DISTRICT  PENAL  FARM. 

Your  committee  then  recommends  the  establishment  of  at  least 
three  district  penal  farms  to  be  located  in  various  parts  of  the 
state,  the  most  accessible  to  the  communities  whence  would  come 
the  largest  number  of  prisoners,  and  a  sufficient  distance  from 
any  city  or  town  as  to  prevent  the  mingling  of  prisoners  with  free 
citizens,  but  with  reasonable  railroad  facilities,  each  penal  farm 
or  colony  to  comprise  at  least  a  section  of  land.  The  law  should  then 
be  so  amended' as  to  compel  the  sending  of  any  prisoner  to  any 
one  of  these  penal  farms  when  convicted  of  the  violation  of  a  state 
law  if  the  crime  is  less  than  a  felony,  and  he  was  not  released 
under  pardon,  parol,  or  suspended  sentence.  No  person,  ex¬ 
cept  for  contempt  or  some  special  circumstance,  should  be  committed 
for  a  period  shorter  than  thirty  days.  If  the  offense  committed  is 
not  sufficiently  serious  to  warrant  his  commitment  for  a  period 
of  thirty  days,  then  he  should  either  be  paroled  or  given  some  fine, 


if  necessary,  with  the  right  to  pay  the  fine  upon  the  installment 
plan. 


INDETERMINATE  SENTENCE  FOR  MISDEMEANANTS. 

We  believe  that  the  time  has  arrived  when  the  indeterminate 
sentence  law  should  also  be  applied  to  misdemeanants.  The  short 
term  sentence  of  from  two  days  to  two  weeks  is  as  wrong  as  it  is 
foolish. 


THE  REPEATER. 

Hugh  C.  Weir  in  the  World  Today  for  January,  1910,  states  that 
a  man  was  sentenced  to  the  Philadelphia  city  prison  201  times 
for  the  same  offense. 

The  records  of  the  Detroit  House  of  Correction  show  one  man 
to  have  been  committed  112  times;  another,  59  times;  another,  58 
times;  another,  57;  another,  40;  and  so  on  down.  See  the  Annual 
Report  for  the  year  1911. 

We  are  informed  by  police  officers  in  the  city  of  Des  Moines 
that  Polk  county  has  one  citizen  who  has  been  sentenced  on  an 
average  of  from  five  to  ten  times  a  year  during  the  past  fifteen 
years;  and  one  year  this  individual  was  committed  to  the  city  or 
county  jail  seventeen  times. 

A  great  deal  of  testimony  in  our  own  state  could  be  offered  to 
show  the  large  number  of  sentences  imposed  upon  rounders  and 
repeaters,  but  this  is  sufficient  to  demonstrate  that  the  *  indeter¬ 
minate  sentence  law  is  just  as  necessary  in  the  punishment  of  mis¬ 
demeanants  as  felons.  It  goes  without  saying  that  any  law  under 
which  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  serve  17  sentences  in  a  year,  and 
an  average  of  from  five  to  ten  every  year,  and  from  100  to  200  in 
a  life  time  is  both  archaic  and  vicious. 

ARRESTS  FOR  INTOXICATION. 

The  number  of  men  annually  arrested  in  our  state  for  intoxi¬ 
cation  alone  is  sufficient  to  warrant  the  establishment  of  the  dis¬ 
trict  farms  or  penal  colonies,  and  this  regardless  of  the  fact  that 
we  now  have  an  inebriate  hospital  at  Knoxville. 

The  amount  of  money  annually  spent  in  punishing  intoxication 
and  inebriety  and  the  resultant  evils  inflicted  upon  the  offenders’ 
families  by  reason  of  the  present  foolish  and  vicious  form  of. 
punishment,  is  far  greater  than  the  public  generally  realizes. 


86  — 


The  statistics  of  one  writer  show  that  one-half  of  all  the  arrests 
in  .a  dozen  of  the  largest  cities  of  the  United  States  during  the 
year  1909  was  for  intoxication,  and  he  states  that  during  that 
year  there  were  approximately  786,000  arrests  in  the  country,  and 
that  over  350,000  of  these  were  for  drunken  men.  During  the  same 
year  the  report  for  England  shows  that  of  90,000  persons  who  were 
committed  to  prison  in  default  of  payment  of  tines,  over  half  were 
convicted  of  drunkenness. 

Reports  from  every  county  in  the  state  of  Iowa,  and  special  inves¬ 
tigations  which  have  been  made  by  one  of  the  members  of  this  com¬ 
mittee  in  some  of  the  larger  cities,  show  that  the  ratio  of  arrests 
for  intoxication  as  to  the  whole  number  of  arrests  is  about  the 
same  in  Iowa  as  the  reports  for  the  United  States  and  for  England, 
that  is  to  say,  our  report  shows. that  the  arrests  in  Iowa  for  intoxi¬ 
cation  average  from  46  to  52  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of 
arrests,  and  in  some  communities  arrests  for  intoxication  are  60 
or  65  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  arrests. 

In  an  evening  Des  Moines  paper,  April  15,  1912,  a  news  item 
says :  ‘  ‘  The  police  court  room  was  crowded  and  almost  overflowing 

this  morning  with  drunks  picked  up  since  Saturday  morning. 
Police  Judge  Utterback  disposed  of  fifty  cases  during  the  morning.” 

Since  approximately  50  per  cent  of  all  arrests  is  for  intoxi¬ 
cation  in  Iowa,  as  well  as  in  other  parts  of  the  United  States,  the 
significance  of  the  present  method  of  punishment  from  a  financial 
standpoint  will  become  apparent  when  we  consider  the  cost  of 
prosecuting  crimes  both  in  our  own  state  and  throughout  the  United 
States. 

THE  COST  OF  CRIME. 

We  have  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  report  of  our  board 
of  parol  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1910,  shows  that  the  expen¬ 
ses  of  criminal  prosecution  for  that  year  amounted  to  $531,505.04, 
but  this  did  not  include  the  expenses  incident  to  the  county 
attorneys’  office  which  was  $128,569.81,  nor  did  it  include  the 
judge’s  salary  for  the  time  spent  in  presiding  at  criminal  trials, 
so  that  the  item  of  expense  including  the  expense  of  the  county 
attorney  amounting  to  over  $600,000  is  but  a  limited  part  of  the 
cost  of  crime  in  the  state  of  Iowa  for  one  year. 

During  nine  months  of  the  previous  year,  the  cost  of  prose- 
cution,  including  the  expense  incident  to  the  county  attorney’s 
salary,  aggregate  over  a  half  million  dollars. 


—  87  — 


Mr.  Weir,  in  the  World  of  Today  for  January,  1910,  states  that 
our  crimes  cost  us  $3,500,000  per  day  and  that  the  cost  of  crime  in 
this  country  for  1909  equalled  the  amount  realized  from  the  wheat 
crop,  the  coal  and  the  wool,  aggregating  approximately  about 
$1,373,000,000. 

NECESSITY  FOR  SCIENTIFIC  TREATMENT. 

Without  vouching  for  the  figures  given  by  Mr.  Weir,  it  is  cer¬ 
tain  that  the  cost  of  crime  in  this  country  is  appalling,  and  we 
have  such  reliable  data  in  the  state  of  Iowa  as  to  convince  us  of  the 
absolute  necessity  of  dealing  in  a  more  scientific  way  with  intoxi¬ 
cation  and  inebriety. 

We  have  previously  referred  to  the  economic  value  of  prison 
labor.  There  is  at  the  present  time  in  the  Inebriate  Hospital  at 
Knoxville  about  195  inmates.  Dr.  Donohoe,  the  superintendent, 
advises  that  at  least  100  of  these  men  are  capable  of  doing  as  much 
manual  labor  as  a  like  number  of  free,  unskilled  laborers,  and 
that  he  would  have  sufficient  men  left  of  the  94  to  perform  all  of 
the  customary  work  in  connection  with  the  operation  of  the 
institution. 

If  that  is  true  with  men  who  have  been  convicted  or  who  pleaded 
guilty  to  inebriety  and  habitual  drunkenness,  it  is  undoubtedly 
true  of  men  who  become  intoxicated  to  such  an  extent  as  to  cause 
their  arrest  but  who  have  not  yet  reached  the  stage  of  an  inebriate 
or  habitual  drunkard. 

We  have  previously  pointed  out  the  value  of  this  labor  with 
reference  to  short  term  prisoners  and  referred  to  what  was  actu¬ 
ally  being  done  at  the  House  of  Correction  at  Detroit,  Michigan, 
where  the  prisoners  are  employd  largely  at  manufacturing  under 
the  state  account  system. 

FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT  FURNISHES  THE  PLAN. 

The  federal  government,  however,  has  furnished  for  the  entire 
country  the  plan  of  successfully  and  scientifically  dealing  with 
intoxication  and  other  forms  of  misdemeanor  in  the  establishment 
of  the  district  farm  at  Occoquan,  Virginia,  where  all  the  short 
term  prisoners  for  the  district  of  Columbia  are  committed  after 
conviction,  and  the  men  are  employed  upon  a  large  penal  farm 
consisting  of  over  1100  acres;  all  kinds  of  farming,  including 
poultry  raising,  dairying,  raising  of  stock  is  carried  on  and  where 
there  is  also  in  connection  with  the  farm  a  sufficient  number  of  in- 


—  88  — 


dustries  to  keep  the  men  profitably  employed  at  productive  labor 
during  every  part  of  the  year. 

Aside  from  the  immediate  value  of  the  labor  and  the  far-reach¬ 
ing  value  of  furnishing  an  opportunity  for  the  men  to  earn  a 
sufficient  amount  to  support  their  families  during  confinement, 
following  the  plan  in  so  far  as  possible  previously  recommended  in 
this  report,  the  importance  to  the  state  of  giving  these  men  the 
best  scientific  training  in  agriculture  can  hardly  be  estimated,  and 
undoubtedly  this  scientific  knowledge  of  agriculture  could  be  ob¬ 
tained  if  the  state  will  provide  for  the  co-operation  between  the 
Agricultural  College  and  the  penal  farms  as  before  recommended. 

That  this  recommendation  is  not  merely  a  matter  of  theory, 
we  have  already  furnished  evidence  by  calling  attention  to  the  co¬ 
operation  given  to  the  George  Junior  Republic  by  the  professors 
of  agriculture  at  Cornell  University,  and  the  instruction  being 
given  in  every  branch  of  scientific  farming  at  Industry,  New 
York,  and  we  have  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  Dean  Curtiss  of 
our  Agricultural  College  believes  that  the  instruction  can  be  given 
by  the  college  and  that  it  will  be  to  the  advantage  of  the  prisoners, 
the  college  and  to  the  state. 

But  important  as  we  believe  the  economic  side  of  the  question 
to  be,  independent  of  this  and  independent  of  the  fact  that  these 
penal  farms  would  be  constantly  educating  men  to  become  farmers 
and  thus  at  least  partially  relieve  the  demand  for  farm  laborers, 
it  is  because  of  the  superior  value  to  the  men  themselves  that  we 
urge  the  recommendation. 

AN  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  INDUSTRIES. 

It  should  not  be  understood  that  we  believe  that  all  persons  could 
be  employed  at  outdoor  labor.  Classification  is  necessary  to  the 
success  of  any  penal  reform  and  it  is  no  less  necessary  in  the 
operation  of  a  penal  farm,  although  Mr.  Whittaker,  Superintendent 
of  the  District  of  Columbia  Farm  at  Occoquan,  employs  all  of 
the  prisoners  at  outdoor  labor. 

There  should  be  district  penal  farms  with  allied  industries,  dairy¬ 
ing,  poultry,  stock  raising,  and  blacksmithing,  etc.,  which  will  fur¬ 
nish  employment  for  the  major  part  of  all  the  prisoners,  and  there 
should  in  addition  be  sufficient  industries  so  that  every  person 
committed  to  the  institution  can  find  employment  every  day  in  the 
year,  and  it  goes  without  saying  that  the  character  of  these  indus¬ 
tries  should  be  such  that  the  men  upon  their  release  may  find  some 


—  89  — 


employment  at  profitable  wages,  and  that  the  character  oi*  the 
employment  should  qiot  be  distinctly  a  woman ’s  work  or  work  for 
the  blind.  If  at  least  three  of  these  district  farms  were  established, 
we  believe  that  one  of  the  institutions  should  be  especially  equipped 
to  treat  men  with  sexual  diseases,  and  that  the  proper  means  of 
segregation  should  be  made ;  and  that  another  institution  should  be 
equipped  for  caring  for  men  not  fit  subjects  for  the  insane  asylum, 
but  who  are  on  the  border  line  of  insanity,  and  that  another  should 
be  especially  equipped  for  caring  for  men  of  tubercular  tendencies, 
or  perhaps  special  treatment  could  be  arranged  for  the  segregation 
of  these  three  classes  at  one  institution  under  the  colony  system. 
In  any  event,  the  important  thing  is  that  there  be  special  treatment 
for  these  several  classes  and  that  there  be  segregation;  in  fact,  it 
will  be  found  that  classification  and  segregation  is  absolutely  neces¬ 
sary  in  order  to  eliminate  the  “institutional”  method  of  treatment 
and  substitute  therefor  as  far  as  possible  the  method  of  “individu¬ 
alization”  of  punishment. 

METHOD  OF  PUNISHMENT. 

In  dealing  with  ordinary  intoxication,  we  believe  that  the 
offender  should  not  be  committed  for  the  first  offense  but  that 
if  a  person  is  found  intoxicated  upon  the  public  streets,  he  should 
be  taken  to  the  police  station  or  before  a  magistrate  and  a  history 
made  of  his  case,  and  that  in  addition  to  this  a  finger  print  record 
be  taken  of  the  man  and  that  he  should  be  warned  that  for  the 
second  arrest  he  would  be  committed  to  a  district  farm;  that  if  he 
were  again  found  upon  the  streets  intoxicated  and  were  convicted 
or  pleaded  guilty  that  he  should  be  sentenced  to  a  district  farm 
for  a  period  of  not  less  than  thirty  days,  and  not  to  exceed  ninety 
days,  or  what  would  be  better,  the  indeterminate  sentence  of  not  less 
than  thirty  and  not  to  exceed  six  months;  and  that  if  again  found 
guilty  of  intoxication  he  should  be  sentenced  for  a  period  of  not 
less  than  six  months  and  not  to  exceed  three  years. 

We  believe  that  it  would  be  well  for  the  board  of  parol  to  have 
authority  to  transfer  prisoners  from  one  district  farm  to  another 
district  farm  or  to  the  Inebriate  Hospital  at  Knoxville. 

At  these  district  farms  a  number  of  men  should  no  doubt  be 
placed  on  the  honor  system,  and  there  should  be  upon  each  farm 
the  necessary  custodial  buildings  sufficiently  safe  to  handle  even 
hardened  criminals.  The  law  should  further  provide  that  all  cities 
and  towns  should  commit  all  persons  convicted  of  misdemeanors 


—  90 


and  for  violation  of  city  ordinances  to  one  of  these  farms,  unless 
proper  arrangements  were  made  by  such  city  or  town  for  employing 
the  prisoner  at  some  form  of  productive  labor;  in  other  words, 
the  law  should  provide  that  no  city  or  town  in  the  state,  after  the 
establishment  of  these  district  farms,  should  be  permitted  to  con¬ 
fine  a  prisoner  after  conviction  to  a  city  or  county  jail  as  a  means 
of  punishment. 

That  this  co-operation  is  entirely  practical  is  evidenced  by  the 
experience  of  the  federal  government  in  committing  prisoners 
to  state  institutions  and  by  the  reciprocity  existing  between  the 
city  of  Detroit  and  the  state  of  Michigan. 

While  we  have  pointed  out  clearly  that  the  state  should  not 
delegate  to  any  local  officials  punishment  for  a  state  law,  we  do 
not  believe  the  same  objection  would  exist  if  arrangements  were 
made  for  a  municipality  to  confine  a  person  for  violating  a  city 
ordinance  in  one  of  the  state  institutions.  On  the  contrary, 
we  think  distinct  advantages  would  result  from  such  an  ar¬ 
rangement.  As  the  population  of  the  state  becomes  more  urban 
it  is  found  necessary  to  grant  the  larger  cities  more  power, 
and  it  has  already  become  apparent  that  if  cities  and  towns  are 
to  deal  effectively  with  the  matter  of  intoxication,  our  con¬ 
stitution  should  be  so  amended  as  to  permit  the  police  judge  to 
impose  a  sentence  in  excess  of  thirty  days  and  to  this  end  we 
believe  that  the  next  legislature  should  pass  the  necessary  reso¬ 
lution  looking  to  the  submission  to  the  people  of  an  amendment 
to  the  constitution  authorizing  police  judges  to  sentence  repeaters 
and  recidivists  to  an  indeterminate  sentence  of  not  to  exceed 
ninety  days  or  one  year  according  to  the  character  of  the  offense 
and  the  number  of  times  previously  convicted;  otherwise,  these 
questions  must  be  dealt  with  under  the  state  law  and  by  county 
officials  if  they  are  to  be  dealt  with  scientifically  and  intelligently. 

But  there  are  a  sufficient  number  of  commitments  to  the  county 
jail  for  misdemeanors  under  the  state  law  to  warrant  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  at  least  three  district  farms  independent  of  the  number 
of  persons  sentenced  to  town  and  city  jails  under  city  and  town 
ordinances. 

A  reference  to  the  records  of  Polk  county,  without  setting  out 
testimony  in  other  cities  and  towns  in  the  state  will  make  the 
position  clear. 


—  91 


In  1909  the  least  number  of  persons  committed  for  one  month  to 
the  Polk  county  jail  was  216 ;  and  the  highest  number  during  any 
one  month  in  that  year  was  334.  In  1910  in  Polk  county  the  least 
number  of  persons  committed  to  the  county  jail  for  any  month  was 
198 ;  and  the  highest  number  was  409.  In  1911  the  least  number  of 
persons  committed  to  the  Polk  county  jail  for  any  one  month  was 
236 ;  and  the  highest  number  was  445. 

It  will  readily  be  seen  that  without  reference  to  the  persons  com¬ 
mitted  under  city  ordinance  that  in  Polk  county  alone  there  are 
enough  idle  men  confined  in  the  county  jail  to  operate  a  penal 
farm  of  a  section  of  land  and  follow  intensive  farming,  but  we 
have  abundance  of  evidence  in  our  possession  to  show  that  the 
number  of  convictions  from  all  parts  of  the  state  would  more  than 
warrant  the  establishment  of  these  district  farms  herein  recom¬ 
mended. 

NO  INDUSTRIES  AT  KNOXVILLE. 

The  committee  visited  Knoxville  and  found  the  institution  clean 
and  sanitary,  but  we  were  surprised  to  find  that  there  was  not  a 
single  industry  connected  with  the  institution;  that  there  were 
approximately  195  men  in  the  institution  at  the  time;  that  there 
were  about  twenty  in  the  sick  ward;  15  to  20  cripples  or  invalids 
who  were  not  capable  of  doing  ordinary  labor,  and  30  or  so  engaged 
in  work  in  connection  with  the  general  duties  of  the  institution. 
There  were  remaining  about  100  or  more  able-bodied  men  who 
were  capable  of  performing  as  much  labor  as  an  equal  number  of 
unskilled  free  laborers;  that  there  was  absolutely  nothing  at  all  for 
these  men  to  do. 

From  what  has  heretofore  been  said  it  follows  that  this  is  abso¬ 
lutely  inexcusable,  and  the  fact  that  there  is  employment  for 
men  during  the  crop  season  on  the  small  farm  does  not  alter  the 
situation.  The  fault,  however,  is  not  due  to  Dr.  Donohoe,  the 
superintendent,  and  without  attempting  to  determine  who  is  re¬ 
sponsible,  we  recommend  that  sufficient  industries  be  carried  on  in 
connection  with  the  institution  as  that  every  man  capable  of  labor 
may  be  employed  at  productive  labor  during  such  time  each  day 
as  is  consistent  with  his  physical  and  moral  welfare. 

NECESSITY  FOR  DISCIPLINE. 

This  institution  should  have  a  custodial  colony.  Since  the 
institution  was  established,  upon  nine  different  occasions  the 


92  — 


doors  have  been  sawed  or  cut  and  each  time  a  number  of  men 
have  escaped.  During  June  of  last  year  a  fire  was  set  in  the 
chapel  by  a  number  of  the  men  who  evidently  resented  being 
longer  confined,  and  under  the  administration  of  a  previous  super¬ 
intendent  it  was  common  knowledge  that  the  men  proceeded  to 
walk  away  and  leave  the  institution  when  they  desired. 

THE  CHANGE  IN  THE  LAW. 

The  means  for  the  same  effective  discipline  should  be  furnished 
for  the  inebriate  hospital  as  for  an  ordinary  penal  colony,  and  the 
law  should  be  so  changed  as  to  provide  for  the  commitment  of 
men  to  this  institution  if  found  guilty  regardless  of  their  desires 
and  without  balancing  probabilities  as  to  whether  they  would  be 
completely  cured. 

An  habitual  drunkard  and  inebriate  ought  not  to  be  left  at  his 
home  for  his  wife  to  support  and  to  set  an  evil  example  to  his  own 
off-spring,  if  any,  and  the  youth  of  the  community.  He  should  be 
committed  with  or  without  his  consent  to  the  district  farm  or  the 
Inebriate  Hospital,  and  after  receiving  the  regular  hospital  treat¬ 
ment  he  should  be  put  to  work  at  productive  labor. 

We  do  not  recommend  that  the  hospital  treatment  be  lessened 
or  denied  any  one,  but  we  do  recommend  that  after  the  hospital 
treatment  is  received,  every  man  be  required  to  perform  as  much 
productive  labor  as  he  is  capable  of  doing  and  at  the  same  time 
build  him  up  physically  and  morally,  not,  however,  exceeding  the 
standard  hours  fixed  by  free  laborers  for  like  employment. 

We  believe  that  in  so  far  as  practical  and  workable,  the  sugges¬ 
tions  with  reference  to  the  payment  of  the  inmates,  or  the  giving  of 
their  earnings  in  the  support  of  their  families,  should  be  followed. 
But  the  records  should  be  so  kept  as  to  show  the  exact  physical 
and  mental  condition  of  the  inmates  and  the  working  efficiency 
of  the  men,  and  while  efficiency  at  productive  labor  should  be 
required,  in  no  event  should  the  financial  side  of  the  institution  be 
considered  paramount  to  the  welfare  of  the  men  or  interfere  in  the 
least  degree  with  their  physical,  mental  or  moral  training. 

NECESSITY  FOB/  A  AVOMEN’S  COLONY. 

All  of  the  reasons  urged  in  support  of  the  necessity  of  the  elim¬ 
ination  of  the  county  jail  as  a  means  of  punishment  for  men  com¬ 
mitting  misdemeanors  makes  it  equally  necessary  to  provide  some 


93  — 


isolated  colony  for  the  purpose  of  caring  for  women  offenders  who 
are  arrested  and  convicted  of  offenses  less  than  a  felony ;  the  keep¬ 
ing  and  being  an  inmate  of  a  disorderly  house,  vagrancy,  petty 
larceny  and  intoxication  comprising  the  largest  part  of  these  of¬ 
fenses. 

Reports  of  chiefs  of  police  from  ten  of  the  largest  cities  in  Iowa 
show  that  over  1,000  women  were  arrested  and  convicted  of  im¬ 
morality  and  other  misdemeanors  during  the  year  1911.  It  is  cer¬ 
tain  that  if  there  were  over  a  thousand  convictions  of  women  in  one 
year  for  misdemeanor  in  ten  of  our  cities,  that  the  number  of 
women  convicted  of  misdemeanor  in  our  entire  state  make  im¬ 
perative  the  necessity  for  at  least  one  custodial  colony  for  women 
in  Iowa. 

Chiefs  of  police  and  police  officials  advise  the  committee  that 
there  is'  no  proper  way  of  dealing  with  these  offenders.  A  woman 
convicted  of  a  misdemeanor  must  either  be  discharged,  committed 
to  the  county  jail  or  fined.  The  effect  of  merely  arresting  the 
persons  and  discharging  them  needs  no  comment.  If  they  are 
confined  to  a  jail  they  are  kept  in  idleness,  probably  with  base 
companions  at  the  expense  of  the  state  or  municipality  and  un¬ 
doubtedly  the  woman  leaves  the  jail  with  less  respect  for  herself 
and  others  than  when  she  entered  it.  If  a  fine  is  assessed  against 
her  it  is  usually  paid  by  some  one  who  has  participated  in  her 
crime,  and  who  therefore  feels  that  he  has  a  mortgage  on  her  body, 
or  a  right  to  share  in  her  nefarious  business  until  he  is  repaid, 
and  hence  one  wrong  is  added  to  another. 

WORTH  SAVING. 

Jane  Addams  and  Katherine  Bement  Davis,  Superintendent  of 
the  New  York  State  Reformatory  for  Women,  have  taught  us  that 
the  scarlet  letter  may  be  removed,  that  the  women  of  the  street 
convicted  of  immorality  are  worth  saving,  and  that  it  is  possible 
to  save  them. 

In  an  address  before  the  National  Prison  Association  Dr.  Davis 
told  of  her  work  at  the  Reformatory  for  girls  and  women  and  how 
she  had  taken  these  women  who  were  sentenced  from  the  city  of 
New  York,  from  the  crowded  tenement  side,  from  China-town,  from 
the  “tenderloin”  and  Coney  Island,  and  by  giving  them  employ¬ 
ment  a  half  day  at  productive  labor,  a  great  part  of  that  labor  be¬ 
ing  outdoors,  and  devoting  the  other  half  of  each  day  to  school, 
she  had  been  enabled  to  make  them  over  body  and  soul. 


—  94  — 


DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA. 

The  District  of  Columbia  operates  a  woman’s  colony  at  Occoquan 
in  connection  with  the  district  farm  for  misdemeanants  where 
women  convicted  of  offenses  less  than  felony  are  committed  for 
punishment,  the  women’s  colony  being  a  considerable  distance  from 
the  men’s  colony,  and  under  direct  charge  of  a  matron  and  women 
guards.  What  can  be  done  at  Occoquan  can  be  done  in  Iowa. 

If  it  were  thought  that  an  entirely  separate  colony  for  women 
would  entail  too  much  expense  there  could  be  one  colony  for  women 
operated  in  connection  with  one  of  the  district  farms  but  a  suffi¬ 
cient  distance  from  the  quarters  for  the  men  to  make  it  completely 
isolated.  If  placed  under  the  charge  of  a  woman  matron  with 
women  guards,  all  the  necessary  conditions  could  be  met  and  un¬ 
doubtedly  a  sufficient  amount  of  productive  labor  could  be  provided 
to  occupy  as  much  of  their  time  as  should  be  spent  in  labor.  Such 
work  as  laundering,  garment  making  and  matters  of  that  nature 
which  are  performed  by  men  at  all  penal  institutions  could  be  per¬ 
formed  by  women  with  economy  and  according  to  the  experience 
of  Dr.  Davis  not  only  gardening  but  many  other  forms  of  outdoor 
labor  can  be  profitably  engaged  in  by  women.  And  it 
follows  that  a  part  of  each  day  should  be  spent  in  mental  and  moral 
training. 


INDETERMINATE  SENTENCE. 

It  is  especially  important  that  the  indeterminate  sentence  be  ap¬ 
plied  to  this  class  of  women  as  it  is  impossible  to  accomplish  any- 
fhing  by  a  ten  day  sentence. 

A  short  time  ago  a  woman  taken  to  the  police  station  in  Des 
Moines  attempted  suicide.  This  is  not  strange  when  we  consider 
our  method  of  punishment  and  the  gloomy  prospect  for  a  woman 
of  this  kind  even  if  she  desires  to  reform. 

THE  JAIL  SYSTEM  CONDEMNED. 

Summing  up  the  evils  of  the  jail  system  now  existing  in  Iowa, 
we  cannot  do  better  than  to  adopt  the  language  of  the  commissioners 
appointed  by  President  Roosevelt  to  investigate  the  jail  system 
in  the  District  of  Columbia.  They  say: 

“The  evils  of  such  a  state  of  things  are  too  obvious  to  call  for 
or  even  justify  extended  comment.  That  men  and  women  should  be 
sent  to  these  narrow  and  crowded  cells,  the  innocent  with  the  guil- 


—  95 


ty, -the  first  offender  with  the  hardened  criminal,  in  one  promis¬ 
cuous  assembly,  to  corrupt  and  be  corrupted  by  each  other,  the 
lazy  to  be  humored  and  fostered  in  their  laziness,  the  industrious 
to  be  deprived  of  every  form  of  employment,  to  he  fed  like  beasts 
and  maintained  at  the  public  charge,  not  only  with  no  prospect 
of  improvement  in  their  condition,  but  wdth  the  moral  certainty 
that  they  will  come  out  far  worse  than  they  went  in,  is  a  fact  that 
has  become  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  the  whole  community  and 
ought  to  he  felt  as  a  shame  and  disgrace  to  the  whole  nation, 
whose  representatives  are  responsible  for  its  existence.” 

Senate  Document  648  p.  8. 

In  view  of  these  conditions  and  the  general  defects  in  our  penal 
system  previously  referred  to,  the  question  confronting  our  state 
is  whether  we  will  continue  to  cling  to  a  false  economy  and  blindly 
follow  precedent  in  our  method  of  dealing  with  the  large  number 
of  persons  annually  convicted  of  crime,  or  whether  we  will  have 
the  larger  vision  and  adopt  a  plan  both  humane  and  scientific,  in 
consonance  with  the  heart,  the  character  and  the  culture  of  our 
people. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

George  Cosson, 

M.  A.  Roberts, 

Parley  Sheldon, 

Committee. 


